Step 1 of running my diesel for nearly nothing

SB118 · 13 Nov 2005 at 18:22

Once you've got yourself a source of used vegtable oil, you need to clean it. Enter the bodged together filter system

Fed from a 10L bucket with a 1/2" push on barb drilled in near the bottom, through a cheapy pump, then filtered and into 20L container.

That's a pair of household waterfilters, one with a 20 micron filter, the other with a 5 micron filter.

I knew i'd find a use for my old watercooling kit in the end (olde world rio1100 fishtank pump, should hopefully last a couple of days until i get something proper)

Plastic tub kindly supplied by the KFC in Union Street

great advice · 13 Nov 2005 at 18:25

Thats proper Ghetto

how much do you reckon your gunna end up paying per litre?

SB118 · 13 Nov 2005 at 18:25

You can see the sediment layer in the large tub, you need to leave the oil to stand for a week of so the bigger junk can settle out, THEN filter it. This is NOT a quick procedure!

Amazing how much junk you can take out of the oil really

That isn't a bad pickup from the camera, that's the junk suspended in the oil!

Hate · 13 Nov 2005 at 18:25

do you have the letter declaring this to the taxman?

SB118 · 13 Nov 2005 at 18:26

heh, the striplight doesn't even penetrate the unfiltered oil :eek:

Think i might have enough to be getting on with too

SB118 · 13 Nov 2005 at 18:28

Hate said:
do you have the letter declaring this to the taxman?

For the hundredth time, YES, i'm a registered fuel producer.

blueboy2001 · 13 Nov 2005 at 18:29

Are you going to add anything to it or run on neat oil? What car?

SB118 · 13 Nov 2005 at 18:38

Nothing added to the stuff that goes into my van. '95 Transit with a Bosch fuel pump.

To make true biodiesel i need to add methanol and sodium hydroxide, stir & heat, but then it can be used in vertually any diesel.

ste_bla · 13 Nov 2005 at 18:43

What do you have to do/pay to the tax man to be registered?

SB118 · 13 Nov 2005 at 18:49

Ring HM Customs & Revenue and tell them you need an EX103 form. You pay 28p/l on biodiesel & 48p/l on veg oil.

Don't get me started on what a bunch of pillocks C&R can be, by the letter of the law veg oil is entitled to the lower duty rate, and some people still pay the lower rate, but they have "taken legal advice" and "revised their understanding" is order to push veg oil users to the higher tax bracket. The law hasn't changed, the fuel hasn't changed, only their "understanding" has changed, which happens to nearly double the duty that is due on your fuel.

Cynical? me? don't know what you mean

Puzzled · 13 Nov 2005 at 19:18

If your paying 48p/l tax then how much are you actually saving?

How much will you paying per litre when you get it all sorted?

SB118 · 13 Nov 2005 at 19:25

MonkeyMan said:
If your paying 48p/l tax then how much are you actually saving?

How much will you paying per litre when you get it all sorted?

Including electric & replacement cartridges i'll be paying about 55-60p/l, saving at least 33p/l on pump prices, that's over £1.50/gal, i can live with that

ste_bla · 13 Nov 2005 at 19:28

Not being funny but how do they know how many litres you have used/produced?

davebax22 · 13 Nov 2005 at 19:29

i dont agree on having to pay anyform of tax on this fuel as its 100% recycling, my god we will have to pay to put bottles in the bottle bank before long, as long as its for personal use and you dont sell any then it should be tax free

SB118 · 13 Nov 2005 at 19:33

ste_bla said:
Not being funny but how do they know how many litres you have used/produced?

It's a self declaration form that i send every month along with a cheque for the duty. You could lie on your paperwork, but you could get caught, and that's when your problems really start.

You do NOT #### with Customs!

Puzzled · 13 Nov 2005 at 19:35

SB118 said:
Including electric & replacement cartridges i'll be paying about 55-60p/l, saving at least 33p/l on pump prices, that's over £1.50/gal, i can live with that

Ahh still a good saving then.

It's incredible how they can get away with charging that much tax, I mean at least you've told them what your doing but I can see why others don't.

AmaTeX · 13 Nov 2005 at 19:41

How long do the filters last, how many ltrs can they do?

SB118 · 13 Nov 2005 at 20:31

Depending on the condition of the oil i can get about 18-20 gals per filter. I'm aiming to get a compresser pressure gauge to tell me when the filters are clogging to make things more acurate.

I've got a couple of bucket type filters on the way to remove particles at 600 & 200 microns, they should take the load off the pump system.

cleanbluesky · 13 Nov 2005 at 20:54

1) Why register with so much TAX? (I already know its The Law, but its not like they are likely to send Judge Dredd round to sniff your garage for oil)

2) Doesn't it harm the engine to use that gak?

SB118 · 13 Nov 2005 at 21:09

cleanbluesky said:
1) Why register with so much TAX? (I already know its The Law, but its not like they are likely to send Judge Dredd round to sniff your garage for oil)

2) Doesn't it harm the engine to use that gak?

1) My exhaust smells different to a vehicle burning mineral diesel, it smells sweeter, much softer on the nose. They don't need to look in my back yard to know i use organic fuel.

2) Heh, most people don't know that Rudolf Diesel designed his engines to run on organic oils, he famously ran the engine on peanut oil at the Exhibition Fair in Paris in 1898. Mineral diesel that you buy at the pump is the "gak" in this case. Veg oils have better lubrication properties than mineral diesel, if anything, it's better for the engine than the stuff you pay double the price for.