Veggie oil - am I an idiot?

cold filter is ok but when ya heat it its quicker...

Iused an old hot water cylindeer with an eletric emersion in....

landowner said:

Does this also apply to using alterative fuels in a petrol engine or have we to pay the tax??

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No - You pay Tax on the lpg when you buy it i believe.

Mseries3 said:

No - You pay Tax on the lpg when you buy it i believe.

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But what if I was to use methane or the like from my own factory?

landowner said:

But what if I was to use methane or the like from my own factory?

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I just had an exciting rummage through the HMRC site. The underlying principle seems to be that alternative fuels are subject to duty at the same rate as the fuel they replace ( I read this then couldn't find it again). ie if you put anything in a petrol car and drive it on the road then you should be paying fuel duty at the petrol rate. However, there are specific exemptions/ different rates for LPG etc and for bio-fuel. The bio-fuel situation is explained in the attached link:

HM Revenue & Customs

Bio-fuels include bio-ethanol, but there is no mention of methanol. I suspect you might be caught by the underlying principle above. Maybe you should get a friend to call them and see what they say...or maybe not.

The link also states the 2,500 litre rule and says you need to keep production records even if you are under the limit.:yawn:

:doh: You said methane didn't you

OK. It looks like methane is taxable as a 'natural road fuel gas':

HM Revenue & Customs

The tariff for 2007 is shown here:

HM Revenue & Customs


I am now going for a lie down in a dark room with a wet flannel on my head:rofl:

Picking up 780 litres of waste oil for £130 tomorrow. Let's hope it works!

what bout if ya run it on parrafin ya can still get n its cheaper than petrol aint it still

Illegal unfortunately. I have read (maybe on here?) that if you were dipped and caught they would charge you back duty for all the fuel you might have used for the length of time you had the car. They take the mileages from MOTs and use the manufacturers fuel consumption figures to estimate. If this is true, it wouldn't be pretty.

theshanclan said:

:doh: You said methane didn't you

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Any thane at all as long as it's cheap an goes bang

A diy settling tank
And again
And the bit that made me giggle

theshanclan said:

Some one on here above has suggested sieve it and then let it settle and has used this technique successfully.

There are various filters on eBay which I thought I might try- this one is cheap:
Biodiesel svo wvo Filter Bag 16" long ) Green Team on eBay, also, Other Business Industrial, Business, Office Industrial (end time 23-Mar-09 17:58:53 GMT)

Another one I have heard is to use old tights...

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I will try and keep this updated as I progress.

I started trying to cold filter last night using one of these bags. No chance. I left it all night and there is still 4" left in the bottom. So unfortunately I have to use either pressure or heat or both as suggested elsewhere here.

So I have bought two central heating pumps, 5 micron cartridge filter and an immersion heater on Fleabay/screwfix. £60 so far.

theshanclan said:

I will try and keep this updated as I progress.

I started trying to cold filter last night using one of these bags. No chance. I left it all night and there is still 4" left in the bottom. So unfortunately I have to use either pressure or heat or both as suggested elsewhere here.

So I have bought two central heating pumps, 5 micron cartridge filter and an immersion heater on Fleabay/screwfix. £60 so far.

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it can take days to cold filter it, it depends entirly on the ambient temperature - if you've got the option put the tank next to a CH rad

if you do try heating it with the immerson heater turn it down low and heat overnight dont be tempted to turn it to max and end up with 100l of oil at 80 degrees - install the heater horizontal a few inches above the outlet that feeds the filter this will ensure that the filter is getting up to temp oil so will flow much freer - remember that heat rises so put the heater near the bottom on your tank

Sorry if it's bin mentioned already somewhere in ere, but no point in filterin to 1 micron (you will struggle to anyway) - 25 is what the filter does and should be fine! 1 micron will bung up in about a second and will be most frustrating!

Sorry if someone already said it and credit to them!

I was going for 5 microns - might have been over ambitious.

Filter Council

(yes there is a filter council ffs)

These people suggest 10-50 for primary filter and 3-10 for a secondary filter for high pressure injector. As I might put some of this stuff in a Disco TD5, I went a bit cautious.

there seems lots of ideas discussed here, I will give you my experience.

I have access to used chip oil. I put in a transulcent 25ltr container and leave in the fresh air drawing room at work. about 1 week later the wax has settled to the bottom. I then use a capillary pump we had spare and slowly pump off the top oil (about 10ltr/hour) dripping through jey cloths.

Job Done.

I use in my 2.5td at 70/30 oil/diesel in the summer, 60/40 in the winter. Fuel filter blocked in the first 500 miles but this was due to the tank/pipes giving up their diesel ****. I have since changed the filter every 1500miles (approx £3.50 on ebay).

Recently tried a full tank of diesel to see if there was any difference - there was, on oil it is faster, runs more evenly and starts better.

If anyone is thinking about it with a 2.5td or 200tdi just go for it, later models will need some trial and error.

Draw back - you will stink of chips!

As Tig9619 said veg oil was a lot cheaper a few years ago so it was well worth running on veg. your not an idiot i still run my 200 on veg with no probs what so ever i jst put it straight in the tank along with a bit of diesel. That thins out the oil a bit job done. When it comes to the emmision test on the mot it flies through on first hoof of the throttle. it runs cleaner smoother and quieter. Every now and again i change out the fuel filter and the sediment bowl by the fuel tank and that's it.

Don't put it in a TD5. The high pressure injectors don't like veg oil. TD5s run fine on proper bio-diesel, but anything less will give you problems.

PASTMASTER said:

Don't put it in a TD5. The high pressure injectors don't like veg oil. TD5s run fine on proper bio-diesel, but anything less will give you problems.

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Not even 10%? I was just thinking about chucking a bit of excess in it from time to time.

theshanclan said:

Not even 10%? I was just thinking about chucking a bit of excess in it from time to time.

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The danger is it will clog up your injectors. There are quite a lot of posts around this theme and the concensus is don't do it. If I remember rightly there's a post on this somewhere from ChearlesY, and he's good at explaining the technical stuff. Think about the small amount of money you're saving as against the cost of putting it right if it goes wrong. No way I'd stick it in mine, although as I say it seems happy on 50% bio-d - runs better in fact. The TD5 is a very different engine from the TDi's.