Using Vegetable Oil as Vehicle Fuel

Using Vegetable Oil as Vehicle Fuel

Vegetable Oil as Vehicle Fuel

This is a how-to on using veg oil to make your diesel car go, easily, safely and cheaply. It's really very easy, very green and very legal.

IMPORTANT: This is for DIESEL engines only. Petrol engines are a whole other technology and cannot burn veg oil: it will gum them up as surely as if you put diesel into them. If you are a petrol driver, look at petrol/alcohol blends or LPG conversion instead.

Why use vegetable oil as fuel?

Using vegetable oil as fuel in diesel engines isn't a new idea. Rudolf Diesel's first engines were built to run on peanut oil for the developing world, which had no petrochemicals industry. Running your modern diesel car or van on veg is just going back to what the designer intended. But why should you make the change?

Vegetable oil is renewable: it's not a fossil fuel, so it doesn't contribute to global warming. By using vegetable oil as fuel, you're making a positive environmental move right where it matters the most, in the one thing in our lives that is the heaviest polluter: our cars.

It's not just green, though. Veg oil is also cheaper than regular diesel: even if you buy supermarket oil and pay the full duty, it works out cheaper. Use waste oil, and the price drops dramatically. Who doesn't want to save money?

Even better, veg oil has cleaner emissions and is good for your engine. Compared to regular diesel, veg oil has massively less sulphur, so there's less sulphur dioxide emitted when you drive. Sulphur dioxide is one of the pollutants that makes kids wheezy, so you're cutting your contribution to childhood asthma. And because veg oil has better lubricity, it's kind to your engine, too: a veg-fuelled engine runs just a little bit smoother. Fuel efficiency is unaffected.

How to do it

An ordinary diesel engine cannot run on 100% pure vegetable oil without conversion. Veg oil is too thick and gloopy to get through the fuel pump and injectors. Conversion is moderately expensive and is quite a commitment, so we'll leave that to the experts.

Instead, we'll try to thin down the veg oil so that it works correctly in the engine. There are two ways to do this: mix it with something, or convert it into biodiesel.

Making biodiesel is a fair old job of bucket chemistry. There are easy how-to's on the web but you need a shed and some spare time.

It's far easier to mix the veg oil with something that will make it runnier. And we have just the thing to hand: regular diesel. Just mix your veg oil into your diesel, and you have a working blend. How?

Just bung it in the fuel tank.

Yes, it's that easy. And yes, it feels really weird putting food into your car for the first time! But it works, and works well.

The easiest way to do this is to run your tank almost empty. Then when you pop to the supermarket, fill up with diesel, and then add the veg oil. The drive home mixes it all up nicely.

How much veg oil should you use? Start with a light blend, and increase each time you refill. That way, if you notice your car sputtering, you know you've hit the limit and should use less next time, and you can top up with regular diesel to thin the mixture back down.

* A 10% veg oil blend will work for everyone. It meets your personal part of our Kyoto commitment, and there should be no noticeable difference in how your car drives. 27 litres of diesel and one three-litre bottle of veg oil from the supermarket.

* At 25% veg oil in 75% diesel, your exhaust stops smelling like a taxi and starts smelling like a doughnut fryer. It's pleasant and a real talking point. You should notice the slight smoothness improvement around now.

* 33% - one part veg to two parts regular diesel - is the heaviest mix I would recommend for the British winter, unless you've got a frost-free garage. This level of blend still starts even on cold, frosty mornings.

* 50% is a good running blend for the rest of the year. Half-and-half is where the cost savings really show themselves. And of course, the carbon saving is good enough to offset that second TV.

A note for new car owners: using non-standard fuels probably voids your warranty. This doesn't mean they're bad, just that they're not covered. Caveat emptor.

What oils to use?

Any thin, clean, dry oil will work.

Thin: Runny oils work better than thick, heavy oils. Once the engine is warm, it doesn't make much difference (and some nutters even run on melted lard!) but for easy starting, choose a runny oil.

Clean: There shouldn't be any bits in your oil. Diesel is particle-free down to 25 microns, so if you are using waste oil, get a 25 micron filter and pass the oil through that. Discard the gack. Most food oils are filtered and just fine, but you will need to avoid those bitty, murky, tasty first-pressing olive oils. They're way too expensive to burn, anyway!

Dry: Water suspended in the oil will make it burn less well. Again, a standard food oil doesn't have this. With waste oil, let it settle before filtering it, and discard the water (if there is any).

The runniest easily-available oil is rapeseed. Next best is a blend of rapeseed and sunflower, which is commonly sold as "vegetable oil". Pure sunflower and corn oils are also good, a little thicker but still perfectly usable. Peanut oil would be perfect, but it's expensive in the UK.

The simplest case, then, is just to get a few big bottles of cooking oil from the supermarket. Vegetable oil is a loss-leader in many supermarkets, so it's often just as cheap as you can find it in cash-and-carries. Shop around - if you're a heavy user, you can get local catering supply companies to deliver lots to your door.

Tax and legal issues

It is not illegal to use vegetable oil as fuel in the UK.

It is illegal to use anything for road vehicle fuel without paying duty on it. To pay duty on vegetable oil, you have to jump through a couple of legislative hoops. Here's what you have to do:

1. Register with Customs and Excise
2. Keep your receipts
3. Fill in a monthly tax return

First, get notice 179E and form EX103 from HM Customs & Excise.

Fill in the EX103 declaring the purpose of your business as a private individual using vegetable oil as a motor vehicle fuel and stating the description as jerry-can(s) marked SVO in porch/shed/wherever. Attach a letter explaining that the oil is a diesel quality liquid fuel produced from biomass or waste cooking oil, the ester content of which is not less than 96.5% by weight; and the sulphur content of which does not exceed 0.005% by weight. Explain that your feedstock is commercial cooking oil and/or waste cooking oil and give the following details:

* Vegetable oil is produced from biomass.
* Fatty acids are esters, so the ester content is 99% approx.
* The sulphur content is 0.002% by weight see this assay by German veg-oil company Elsbett

Remember to give an estimate of your monthly usage: For an individual, this will be small: less than 100 litres. Don't forget to include a contact phone number in case they have any further questions.

The completed EX103 should be sent to HMCE, Mineral Oils Relief Centre, Dobson House, Regent Centre, Gosforth, Newcastle-on-Tyne NE3 3PF.

Every month, you will be sent an HO 930. It's a moderately scary-looking form but filling it is is dead easy. It's detailed in the 179E leaflet:

At the bottom of the list of duty types, make the blank row read: ORR 33589 Biodiesel and then your quantity and calculated duty payable. As I write, duty is 27.1p per litre. Sign and date the declaration, write a cheque to The Commissioners of Customs and Excise, and pop the form and cheque in the post.

Keep your receipts: You're required to keep them for six years. It's simplest if you just keep the paper receipts, stapled together so you have a bundle for each HO930 you've submitted.

And that's it! The forms look opaque but it's not hard really. If you get stuck, Customs' national enquiries help line is open 8am to 8pm Monday to Friday for all general questions on 0845 010 9000 (+44 208 929 0152 outside UK).

Veg oil for everyone!

Driving on veg oil is dead easy to do. Why aren't more people doing it? Confusion about whether or not it is safe and legal. Well, I think it is time the Government took a lead.

By mandating a 10% vegetable oil content in diesel fuel sold at the pump, non-renewable emissions from diesel vehicles will be cut, at a stroke, by 10%. That's most of our Kyoto commitment for all those HGVs, taxis and White Vans. Our worst polluters will become a shining example of how to do it. There's no technical reason not to go ahead and change the law right now. Proper at-pump duty would remove the bureaucratic hoops through which we currently have to jump. It would incentive people to shift to even greener levels of veg. It would make a difference.

Until they do, though, take the lead yourself. Try a bottle of veg in your car. If you're not sure, P.M. me with your questions and I'll see what I can do.
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