Reduced environmental footprint, higher fields –the eoil-Systemplus in agricultural machinery.
As well as HGVs and construction equipment, our systems are also widely used in agricultural machinery. KWS, one of the world’s largest plant-breeding companies, with over 40 wholly and part-owned subsidiaries in 70 countries, has been using our single-tank system at its site in Wetze, Germany since 2005.
It was the introduction of new tax regulations on agricultural fuels that prompted the company to switch to vegetable oil. Farmers can now only claim a partial tax rebate on up to 10,000 litres of diesel a year, and so many are looking to change to alternative fuels. “We use 80,000 litres of diesel a year, and so we had to act,� says the KWS’s operations manager Christian Prelle. “We now use cold-pressed rapeseed oil instead.� By the time the new rules came into force, the company’s fleet consisted entirely of New Holland tractors and combine harvesters, leased from our certified dealer and service centre New Tech in Harsum, near Hildesheim, and running on vegetable oil. New Tech has been installing the eoil system on tractors since 2005.
Initially there were a few problems caused by defective injection pumps and electronics on the tractors, but the latest generation of New Holland machinery runs on rapeseed oil without any problems. In autumn 2006, KSW took delivery of three new T8030 tractors and one TVT170, replacing the old TG and TM models and fitted by New Tech with the eoil-Systemplus. These tractors have now clocked up some 600 hours of operation without any trouble, and as yet it has not been necessary to replace a single fuel pump or ultrasound chamber (USG). The company is understandably delighted with this reliability record. The Wetze site also operates two TM155 tractors and a CR9080 combine, also powered by vegetable oil.
“We’re now buying around 70,000 litres of rapeseed oil a year, compared with just 10,000 litres of diesel, so switching to vegetable oil hasn’t increased the amount of fuel we use. However, our costs are about 30 per cent lower than if we were using only diesel,� says Prelle. Vegetable oil costs about 65 cents a litre, compared with 90 cents for diesel. In the winter months, when the machinery is in much more infrequent use, Prelle still chooses to run them on diesel, though as he says, this is, “purely a precaution.� He is, however, only at liberty to take this precaution because the eoil Systemplus runs equally well on diesel, vegetable oil, or any combination of the two.
If any fuel is spilt on the ground during refuelling or minor repairs to the fuel tank, there is no cause for concern. Vegetable oil biodegrades very quickly, and is in the lowest hazard category in the German system for classifying industrial chemicals. So by using the eoil-Systemplus, KWS is not just benefiting itself, but the local community too. This is in line with its aim of setting the best possible example in terms of environmental and social responsibility – an aim which it shares with eoil.
