All of military everywhere has since long standardized down to one common fuel (diesel/jet). There are some exceptions here and there, where no alternatives exists. Logistically a nuisance in peace times, a huge weakness in war time. Drones, is still an immature market going in many different direction. Most of it is highly experimental, and this gives opportunities for ad hoc solutions (like Rotax gasoline engines). People tend to vastly over emphasize the importance of the irrelevant types (in military terms), simply because cool videos can be extracted from them.
eurogaguest1980 wrote:
no one is going to throw away their gasoline ICE, but if it stops spraying lead, that has to be an improvement for everyone.
I don’t think anyone really care about led at all to be honest. It’s exclusively a political thing today, and hardly even that. GA is the last loose thread, and it will probably be dealt with swift when an alternative exists IMO. But, there still is a chance it will not happen though. They may look at it again and say led for a few relic GA planes is not large enough of an issue to warrant dealing with. They could ask Austro or Rotax, the two major manufacturers of GA engines in Europe and the world, if they:
The answer will be “no” to both questions. Problem solved. No need to do anything – or they could say let’s finish off this led once and for all. But why do that if the decision is it’s not really a problem?
Then the market starts doing what it does. Gasoline will only become more expensive, and unproportionally so the more specialized the fuel is. Diesel and ethanol will probably also become more expensive, but lot less than gasoline. Diesel and ethanol are pure substances, and will exist forever. That new fuel is 100% dependent on the paint business for it’s “secret ingredient”, and even today that ingredient is highly specialized and expensive. It’s the kind of stuff the industry would rather be without (if it could), because it adds expenses.
Lots of factors and unknowns here. What will the price of that new fuel be? No one really knows, but estimates are 20-40% more than 100LL. If 100LL was to be forbidden, then people would really start looking at alternatives using much cheaper fuel. If 100LL is not forbidden, will anyone pay the extra for the new fuel? How many? Not many IMO, why do it when the governments have decided it’s not a big deal.
The situation is really weird.
I’ve just read on a US site (maybe posted previously here) that the FAA has approved 100UL for all 100LL engines on N-reg planes.
Well, that’s old news.
What was interesting is that you have to purchase an STC from GAMI before you can put it in your tanks. I have not seen a price for this STC. Does anyone know?
GAMI says on their website the pricing will be in the same range as earlier autofuel STCs, meaning they will be rather cheap to get.
LeSving wrote:
I don’t think anyone really care about led at all to be honest
Well, I do – apart from being toxic, it’s not really all that good for my engine anyway and it fouls spark plugs. While 91UL is showing up at more places as time goes on, it’s still not available here.
100UL would displace 91UL and 100LL unless there was a significant pricing advantage to the others.
No airport wants to carry two piston GA fuels, which is why so few airports are carrying 91UL, or actually anything apart from 100LL.
Peter wrote:
No airport wants to carry two piston GA fuels,
Except those that do. Roskilde comes to mind (although I understand that there has recently been some issues with BP). My own airport as well.
LeSving wrote:
According to that, it is basically ink
I fear the worst:
https://www.yoyoink.com/articles/why-is-printer-ink-expensive/
Concerning the “only Diesel is viable” discussion – I was under the impression that you can’t refine just Diesel, you get both, gasoline and diesel. I remember being told that gasoline is transported from europe to the US and diesel from the US to europe (or at least used to), but maybe @silvaire can shed some light here….
Inkognito wrote:
I was under the impression that you can’t refine just Diesel, you get both, gasoline and diesel.
Correct – it’s actually a very simple process. Here’s one picture, and a link. https://secondaryscience4all.wordpress.com/2014/07/28/fractional-distillation-of-crude-oil/3/
You can of course stop the process when you only have diesel, but you will be wasting a lot of your product.
When you do fuels with dinosaur juice as feedstock, yes.
But you can do HVO/SAF from many things, including waste byproducts from other processes. Gasoline replacements are more picky as to what they are born out of.
Just came in from IAOPA:
Is the EU really going to make its own “100UL” ?? I mean, whose?? 
I ought to mention that TEL is already made in “Europe”
I wonder where this comes from:
This is also consistent with plans in the US, where the target date for conversion is 2030
