The French national rail operator SNCF (Societe National de Chemin de Fer) announced on Tuesday that it will be using B30 in some trains and B100 (pure vegetable oil) in others.

 

SNCF will use two types of biofuels: a mix of 30% rapeseed biodiesel with ordinary diesel (B30), and, unusually, two heavily used express trains will be using pure vegetable oil. This is the first stage in the service's "zéro pétrole" objective, which consists of introducing B30 in 70% of its diesel locomotives by 2010. To give an idea of the implications of this, SNCF alone will be using 20% of France's entire rapeseed (canola) oil production.

 

Readers familiar with the French language can read the press release here:

http://www.univers-nature.com/inf/inf_actualite1.cgi?id=2291

 

David Smith, Singapore