Step 1 of running my diesel for nearly nothing

[SB118]

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

 

[SB118]

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!

 

[SB118]

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

Think i might have enough to be getting on with too

 

[SB118]

do you have the letter declaring this to the taxman?

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

 

[SB118]

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.

 

[SB118]

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

 

[SB118]

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

 

[SB118]

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!

 

[SB118]

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.

 

[SB118]

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.

 

[SB118]

I've not found a centrifuge that can spin up 20l of oil at a time, filtering might not be that quick, but i can set it running and leave it alone for a couple of hours at a time.

 

[SB118]

Did you have to heat the oil in the fuel line/tank or is its viscosity high enough for the pump to handle?

I've got a bosch fuel pump which means i don't need to heat anything. If you've got a Lucas/Cav/Rotodiesel pump, you'll need to heat the fuel, run a twintank system or run biodiesel.

 

[SB118]

I'm shocked you're actually paying tax on it. I hope you're declearing that you are only producing a small amount of oil, because that tax rate is daylight robbery.

I'd rather pay the Duty than have Customs impound my van and fine the carp out of me for Duty evasion.

 

[SB118]

will modern commonrail diesels run on this?

You'd need to run on biodiesel in a commonrail engine, the engine management systems and sensors go all to pot on veg oil.

 

[SB118]

All looks like good stuff. I'm sure your probably sick of all the questions but i'll add mine anyway What kind of fuel economy are you going to be seeing compared to derv as it would have to be identical to be able to simply compare cost/l?

I get the same mpg as pump diesel, and if anything it runs a bit smoother too (bit hard to be 100% sure on such a refined vehicle though )

 

[SB118]

Makes you wonder why diesel costs so much then. If your a registered fuel producer then why cant someone do it on a large scale and cut prices from what they are now.

You know a friendly chippie I take it

If i ramp up production i have to get a waste handling certificate from the Enviroment Agency, and also another certificate for producing a chemical compound with oxygen content. (hsitloads more paperwork and expenditure basically, but i'll consider it if this stuff becomes popular)

 

[SB118]

So if you used standard unused vegoil say in purchased in 20L Barrels for a pound from Lidl's you could effectively just pour it straigh in?

Lidl do 1l bottles for 43p, lots of fiddling around to fill your tank.

IF (and i mean IF) you have a strong fuel pump, yes, you can pour it straight into your tank and drive off. if you have any other sort of pump, you will sheer the pump rotor the first time you have a cold morning start.

And if you buy the oil off the shelf, be sure to keep your recipts so you can be sure how much to declare for Duty payments. I kid you not, Customs are the last people you want to take a keen interest in you.

 

[SB118]

Oh, and i've just discovered that the water pump has packed up too. Loks like i'm offto Machine Mart tomorow to get a decent one!

 

[SB118]

Sorry for being scynical, but how would they know. Would a policeman in a car be able to tell, and how would the customs find out as well. You buy veg oil in a supermarket, and maybe a total grease monkey and love chips.

very interesting read, hope you reap the benefits.

I can picture it now, someone pulled at the side of the road, with a policeman on one knee sniffing your exhaust. If you had not, mentioned the duty factor I would never have known. At the end of the day they dont tax on veg oil in the supermarket, so why would you think it would be taxed if you added it to your tank? Might be a new MOT test before long?

The smell is very noticable, it's a sweet "chipshop" type of smell (though admitedly the stuff i got from KFC smelt of chicken for some reason ), the policeman wouldn't need to sniff your exhaust to know you use organic fuel, you'd just need to drive passed him/her.

Veg oil is taxed at the supermarket on the basis as a foodstuff, only once you put it in your tank it becomes liable for fuel duty too.

I've had my tank dipped more than once driving around town (my granddad lives 200m from the DoT test center in Plymouth and i occasionally get waived in when they are doing spot checks), if you're running non duty paid fuel in a road vehicle, you are in the kaka, "It couldn't be worse if it was raining *********"

 

[SB118]

Does that mean you can claim back the tax already paid on it as a foodstuff?

*n

It would make sense i suppose, how much tax do you pay on food?