Being on the BBC I daren't read the article for fear of miss information, was this including BIO Diesel?
Who is this Miss Information and where can I meet her? She sounds like the cute bookwormy type.
Bio-diesel still burns in the same manner as fossil-fuel diesel, it just has a lower "carbon footprint" because the means by which it has been created are renewable to some degree and absorb CO2 during their growth. So it's better, but the fumes are still a bit nasty.
I have a question. The US implemented a "low sulfur" diesel regulation and these urea-based filtration systems on the vehicles. Does any of this reduce the carcinogens in the exhaust.
To some degree, I expect. It's known as AdBlue in Europe, and reduces oxides of nitrogen and some exhaust emissions, though I'm not sure to what degree. Particulate filters clear some more (specifically, particulate matter that even without toxic components is pretty bad for your health) but diesel engines are still inherently less clean than gasoline ones.
As an aside, the research confirms to me that people who enjoy "rolling the coals" are dicks, and that London really needs to do something about its black cabs, most of which side-step modern car regulations for exhaust emissions. I know! Let's make inner-city transport exempt from emissions regulations, where they're most important!
I've seen some that run on vegetable oil, and food grease. Hmm.
Yup. Both examples of bio-diesel. Not all are suitable for modern vehicles without work, but you can happily run old pre-1990s diesels on filtered used cooking oil. Many people do and if you have a decent supply of old oil from a fish'n'chip shop or similar then it becomes very cheap indeed to fill up your car.
Of course, while it's environmentally responsible from a recycling stand-point, you'd still be driving a decidedly unclean pre-catalyst pre-DPF mechanical-injection diesel, from which the emissions tend to be rather visible.
