SsangYong blames bio-diesel

GROWING concern about bio-diesel has prompted a Korean importer to recommend that owners of its diesel-powered vehicles not use the blended fuel, and for the auto industry’s peak body to call for an internationally accepted national standard.

Speaking at the launch of the updated Kyron SUV last week, SsangYong Australia’s managing director Keith Timmins told GoAuto that problems with fuel system failures due to fuel impurities had forced SsangYong to take the unprecedented course of discouraging any use of bio-diesel in its vehicle range.

Many manufacturers, including the local arms of Nissan and Toyota, permit the use of at least five per cent bio-diesel blends in petroleum-based diesel in their vehicles, providing it conforms to an accepted international standard.

In September 2003, the Department of Environment and Water Resources (DEW) developed an Australian fuel standard for bio-diesel as part of its responsibilities under the Fuel Quality Standards Act 2000.

As yet there is no standard for blended bio-diesel fuels. DEW is preparing a position paper regarding the management of diesel/bio-diesel blends.

According to Mr Timmins, the main problem is not with the bio-diesel as such but with the definition of bio-diesel.

“Bio-diesel is a wide-ranging term and fuels marketed as bio-diesel could contain a variety of elements including vegetable oils or even animal fats, and these may be fine in old-style diesel engines that do not meet the latest environmental standards, however, clean common-rail engines will not perform as they were intended with low quality fuels.” Mr Timmins is concerned that his company may be left open to costly warranty claims.

“We have to protect ourselves against wrongful claims. We have had five or six fuel system failures done under warranty,” he said, adding that a SsangYong vehicle could cost up to $10,000 in parts alone to repair a damaged common-rail fuel system.

Emphasising that the suspect bio-diesel originated not from oil companies but from “unscrupulous people, who mix and sell (bio-diesel) without testing”, Mr Timmins said that it was a difficult issue. “If you take the bio-diesel from a reputable service centre, that’s fine,” he said.

If a SsangYong owner went against the warning and used bio-fuel, and his vehicle subsequently suffered fuel system failure, Mr Timmins said that SsangYong would still honour any warranty claim, providing “fuel testing found that it was acceptable for automotive use. If the testing says it is suitable, we can’t argue with that”.

The Australian motor industry’s peak body shares Mr Timmins’ concerns. Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries (FCAI) CEO Andrew McKellar told GoAuto this week that his members were becoming increasingly concerned about fuel quality.

“There are growing concerns about bio-diesel fuel,” he said. “We have to have a comprehensive standard for fuel quality.” Mr McKellar says that specifically there needs to be a standard set for the blend – and that should be “the internationally accepted B5 bio-diesel with the use of fatty acid methyl esters (FAME), and that of course that the fuel meets national diesel fuel standards.” Mr McKellar could not specify the number of instances of fuel system damage due to contaminated bio-diesel, but said that he has been getting a growing number of reports of such incidences from FCAI members.

“There have been instances where fuel samples were taken and 25 per cent bio-diesel found or even in one case 75 per cent, which is completely unacceptable,” he said.

The chairman of Gull Petroleum and the Biofuels Association of Australia (BAA) Neil Rae told GoAuto this week that he did not see any validity to the claims. “There is an enormous bio-diesel industry that have been doing this for a long, long time with no problem.” Mr Rae cited the example of a diesel fleet running 100 per cent bio-diesel without any evidence of harm to the vehicles engine or fuel system. “We have been running these cars for a year now,” he said.

Mr Rae said that all BAA members sell bio-diesel that conforms to the national standards for diesel fuels. He also said that this problem with bio-fuels was news to him: “The fuel industry is not aware of this at all.”

Read more:

First drive: Kyron now cheaper, cleaner... classier

Read GoAuto's drive impressions of the SsangYong Kyron range