Cheapest Vegetable Oil?

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  • tali
    tali Posts: 709 Forumite
    anewman wrote: »
    Are there guides to which diesel cars like straight veg oil with no additives or car modifications? I understand some cars will choke on it and some will happily burn it with no problems.
    well ive got a 405td which is one of the more suited to run on all/any types of veg oil but i ended up with probs
  • FlameCloud
    FlameCloud Posts: 1,953 Forumite
    Name Dropper First Anniversary First Post
    Alot of the newer common rail diesel engines wont like it- I've heard the peugeot/ford units are particulaly bad.
  • AJB135
    AJB135 Posts: 100 Forumite
    Conor wrote: »
    You see people coming out of Macro with trolleys full of veggie oil.

    Does anyone know how much veggie oil is from Macro?



    Cheers

    ajb135
  • Fen1
    Fen1 Posts: 1,577 Forumite
    Combo Breaker First Post First Anniversary
    Please note that vegetable oil may well be palm oil. Palm oil production is directly linked with rainforest destruction as much of it is unregulated and unsustainable.
    Switching from diesel to vegetable oil, unless the palm oil in question is fully sourceable, only shifts environmental destruction.
    Please read the following links:

    http://www.orangutans-sos.org/campaigns/nopalmfuel.php

    http://www.biofuelwatch.org.uk/background.php

    http://www.foe.co.uk/campaigns/biodiversity/case_studies/palm_oil/


    Quote from Biofuelwatch:
    "As soon as the EU Biofuel Directive was passed, both Malaysia and Indonesia declared their intention to become major providers of biodiesel made from palm oil, and to expand oil palm plantations into virgin rainforests. More recently, Friends of the Earth Indonesia have identified the growing biodiesel market in Europe as one of the two key threats to Borneo’s rainforests (see www.eng.walhi.or.id/kampanye/hutan/konversi/060412_palmoilplantation_/).
    The European Biofuel Directive was meant to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and to be part of the solution to climate change. The destruction of tropical rainforests, however, is linked to about one quarter of all greenhouse gas emissions from all human activities. When a hectare of virgin rainforest is cleared and replaced with oil palms, this discharges in the order of 65 times as much carbon as can be saved annually by using the palm oil to replace mineral diesel, according to data from the ASB study in Indonesia."






  • appparantly the best oil to use is is rapeseed oil
    would using genetically modified soya bean oil turn your car into a van?
    speed is good
  • JMio_2
    JMio_2 Posts: 6 Forumite
    Time to bring this back to life I think!

    I've been doing A LOT of research on this to try & ease the financial strain of my 500 mile a week commute.

    A theory that I've read a few times is that it's possible to run a diesel engine (old ones, i.e. Mercs/Pugs etc) on Heating Oil/Kerosene quite happily.

    The downside to this is that Kerosene lacks the lubricating quality of Diesel, and as such is not so good for your engine.

    100% pure cooking oil, again will run happily, however as has been said it can congeal a bit in cold weather thus making the engine hard to start & lumpy to run until it warms up.

    So... (you can maybe see where this idea is going...)

    What about a 50/50 mix of Kerosene (currently costs less than £0.40 per litre) & free, (used & filtered) Cooking Oil c/o your local Chinese/Indian/Chippy. It COSTS them to have old Oil uplifted, so they will more than likely be happy to let you take it for free.

    Has anyone tried a 50/50 mix of Kerosene & Cooking oil?

    Obviously I'd be using this method entirely off-road/on my own private land etc, as I'm not sure of the legalities of using Kerosene, Duty/Tax reasons etc etc.

    This potentially would cut my annual fuel bill down to about a 5th of it's current costs... Hence why I'm very very keen to learn more about it!
  • Wig
    Wig Posts: 14,139 Forumite
    My, my, your private estate must be quite extensive, you do 500 miles on your private land each week? If true....
    Your family has vast amounts of money to own so much land why worry about a few pounds on petrol?
    You would be quite legal to use red diesel in your vehicle, because it is on private land.

    But let's assume you do want it for use on the highway... surely not, but anyway...
    If you use kerosene that is not biofuel so it will be chargeable and to be declared to HMCE you would have to pay duty of 52p ish per litre of kerosene + VAT and therefore you will not be saving anything. on the kerosene part so you might aswell use normal duty paid diesel out of the pumps. The veg oil will be duty free and non declarable (BUT ONLY IF IT IS SVO not WVO). Mixing the two is a tried and tested way to have winter running.


    If you want to do it using kerosene as an illegal tax dodge on the highway, yes, I'm sure when mixed with cooking oil it will be fine. The duty free 2,500 litres biofuel only applies to clean fuels, WVO (chinese takeaway oil) is not clean enough, and therefore in the unlikely event you are caught and not declaring it, you will face prosecution. The only oil that is duty free is clean unused vegoil.

    Environmentally speaking the policy is crazy, but that is the legal position.
  • Bob63
    Bob63 Posts: 1,320 Forumite
    Costco sell large drums very cheap.

    Mike
  • Supermarkets are all 74-76p a litre, even the big drums.

    Bookers have 20 litre drums for £14.99, again 75p a litre, seems they have cottoned on to the fact its being used for fuel, and if cheaper than pump prices will still sell

    Bookers at the moment are doing 15 1 litre bottles for under £9 which is about 48p a litre which is great. This time of year, 50:50 diesel to veg oil is fine and 90-100% can be done in summer - just make sure you have a Bosch fuel pump (Locus ones will fail) and keep a log book for the tax man in your car.

    If first start issues arise, use less oil and get some new/high grade glow plugs, they even do petrol tank heaters now also, helps first start issues.

    Makro is about 75p a lite also, i noticed ASDA stocked up, they had about 50 15 litre drums on the shelf!!
  • Bob63
    Bob63 Posts: 1,320 Forumite
    Checked the price in Costco this afternoon - 74.5p/litre in large drums.
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