Uber massive bio-fuel breakthrough

SB118 · 29 Apr 2007 at 20:47

After the budget it's been confirmed, low users (under 2500L per 12 month period) will NOT have to register to pay fuel duty! After a lot of work, we've manged to make it cost them more to collect the tax than the tax they were collecting

vegetableoil diesel forum said:
I sent an email the other day to Tony Baxter (Customs and excise) and asked him to tell me in plain terms if/when the new legislation (2,500 lts.) comes in and I go to the supermarket and buy some rapeseed oil and put it in my tank and mixed it with diesel would I have to pay any duty. Here was his reply.

Apologies for the slight delay

– I have been out of the office
for a couple of days.

To the answer the question, the change will mean that duty will not be payable on biofuels or other fuel substitutes or additives provided each producer does not produce more than 2,500 litres per year on a rolling 12-month basis. Rape seed oil not set out for sale as road fuel but bought for that purpose means the purchaser of the oil for road fuel use is a biofuel producer. There will be a public announcement shortly to this effect in the form of a Revenue & Customs Brief. We expect the change to take effect by the summer.

Regards

Tony Baxter

Fantastic news for people who run on veg

silversurfer · 29 Apr 2007 at 20:50

That sounds amazing though Im not 100% clear. Does that mean anyone with a diesel can go use supermarket oil without having to declare it. Ditto for used chip oil, etc ?

2500 l = 549.923 gallons (UK)

Or roughly 27k miles at 50mpg

SB118 · 29 Apr 2007 at 21:01

silversurfer said:
That sounds amazing though Im not 100% clear. Does that mean anyone with a diesel can go use supermarket oil without having to declare it. Ditto for used chip oil, etc ?

2500 l = 549.923 gallons (UK)

Or roughly 27k miles at 50mpg

Yup, it's covered by ...

Rape seed oil not set out for sale as road fuel but bought for that purpose means the purchaser of the oil for road fuel use is a biofuel producer.

You have to be very nice to your car to get 50mpg though. Wifes astra get's 35-40 right now.

silversurfer · 29 Apr 2007 at 21:10

Yep thats a pretty handy clause or we'd all have to set up little rape seed patches in the back garden

My dads micra gets 50mpg easily so shouldnt a diesel get it easily also. Ive never driven one, just I thought this was their forte.

Whats the astra, 2l and no turbo?

SB118 · 29 Apr 2007 at 21:13

1.7 turbo (the "low-blow" GM engine, possibly the worst diesel engine ever made!)

50mpg Micra weighs as much as a crisp packet though

silversurfer · 29 Apr 2007 at 21:21

True, about 900kg or so. 1.7 turbo probably has a lot more power and definetly lots more torque.

Cant believe the government is actually letting some revenue go like this, makes me think they arent all lying hyprocrites :confused:

Must be an anomaly

At 30mpg, it amounts to 16k miles still. More then I do usually anyway

SB118 · 29 Apr 2007 at 21:28

silversurfer said:
Cant believe the government is actually letting some revenue go like this, makes me think they arent all lying hyprocrites Must be an anomaly

There may have been some cruel people out there, introducing their family and friends to biofuels. Then getting them registered as a fuel producer, and having them return a monthly duty payment for 1L, with a cheque for just under 50p.

Was costing them more to process and cash the cheques than the payments were worth.

I'm expecting to hear quite soon about how the goverment are cutting duty on biofuels in order to encourage people to go green. Cynical? moi?

Oblivious · 29 Apr 2007 at 21:29

I dont think girls would ever get in my car if they could smell chip fat. Not pleasant and you smell like a *****.

Some things just arent worth it, even for the sake of 50p.

SB118 · 29 Apr 2007 at 21:35

It depends on usage, we're saving just over £100 a month using waste veg oil instead of diesel, and it smells a hell of a lot better than dino-diesel

Oblivious · 29 Apr 2007 at 21:43

SB118 said:
It depends on usage, we're saving just over £100 a month using waste veg oil instead of diesel, and it smells a hell of a lot better than dino-diesel

Is it worth it for £100 quid? Sounds like loads of hassle.

SB118 · 29 Apr 2007 at 21:45

Oblivious said:
Is it worth it for £100 quid? Sounds like loads of hassle.

Without the tax, we'll be saving at least £2400 a year.

Worth it yet?

Oblivious · 29 Apr 2007 at 21:47

SB118 said:
Without the tax, we'll be saving at least £2400 a year.

Worth it yet?

To smell like a ***** plus hassle? Im not sure to be honest.
Can you give me a breakdown of the £2400 figure.

silversurfer · 29 Apr 2007 at 21:49

I dont know how much it'd save but picking up a litre of oil from the supermarket instead of the petrol station outside will cost you like 35p a litre instead of 88p a litre it is now ?

Who'd turn down that saving, its a massive change imo. No one likes diesel smell anyway, I cant see it being much difference on that point and its not really a hassle increase either.

If you know of a cheap diesel for sale I'd suggest going out and buying it now before this gets to be common knowledge. It could have quite a knock on effect for prices, at the bottom of the market anyway

SB118 · 29 Apr 2007 at 21:53

Oblivious said:
To smell like a ***** plus hassle? Im not sure to be honest.
Can you give me a breakdown of the £2400 figure.

We're using a full tank of fuel a week in the astra. 50L tank * 52 weeks = 2600L @ 93p/l = £2418 if we'd paid out at the forecourt.

NathanE · 29 Apr 2007 at 21:58

Can you really smell it or is that just heresy? :confused:

SB118 · 29 Apr 2007 at 22:02

You can smell it in the same way you can smell diesel fumes, veg fumes are a lot sweeter. It smells like popcorn. I'd rather be stood next to a veg oil burner than a diesel burner if i had to breathe the exhaust fumes.

People say it smells like chips, wrong, chips smell like burnt veg oil.

Dangerous Dave · 29 Apr 2007 at 22:06

Oblivious said:
To smell like a ***** plus hassle? Im not sure to be honest.
Can you give me a breakdown of the £2400 figure.

Its free now he doesn't have to pay the tax and has the filtering system setup as he uses used oil from chippies etc. Imagine never having to pay for petrol how much that would save you a month or year.

NathanE · 29 Apr 2007 at 22:07

But can occupants tell if its a vegan engine? I mean you don't walk up to car a say "mmm this smells like a diesel", can you do that with one of these things? And likewise I don't think I'd give a toss if the person behind smells chips!

SB118 · 29 Apr 2007 at 22:09

Yup, you can defo tell a veg burner.

silversurfer · 29 Apr 2007 at 22:09

You can tell a difference in smell, I suppose there could be a street cred thing resultant from that but diesel fumes dont smell good to me so it seems silly to object.
Im not sure about diesel but petrol exhaust fumes can be lethal, your lungs are much better off with this stuff then anything else. That is supposed to be the whole point after all isnt it?

LPG has a worse smell to it, especially if not all of it is being ignited in the engine. It normally has no smell but it is a denser then air gas so they add in a particularly noticable smell for safety reasons.

Part of this 'cosmetic' factor is down to the fact the industry is not well funded, most of the public is still wasting its money on conventional fuels. Its a question of refinement