Make your own Diesel, good processors?

Nemesis201077

Hi all,

Thanks for the useful replies.

The vehicle I currently drive is a y-reg Skoda Fabia 1.9TDi. I went for this for 3 reasons.

• It does about 50-55mpg
• It's cheap on tax at £110 per annum
• It's not a common rail engine, which may have issues with higher viscocity fuels.

I'm not keen on creating a twin tank system, preheating my fuel or running on straight veg oil as I do worry about the viscocity at engine start-up during the winter months. If I knacker the car any money saving's gonna be swallowed by replacing it.

Indeed I was aware of the 2500 per litres tax free. This is also per person, so I could make 2500 litres for me and 2500 for the missues, by the time the whole family's running on Biodiesel I'd have a shed that looked like a Esso station.

anyway, it's good to see some people have had positive experiences with some off the peg units. Although most of the forums feel these are a bit dodgy I'm sure a well made unit could simplify the whole process.

At present I do 4000 miles per annum just getting to and from my office. I then complete probably 6000-8000 miles visiting customers and 2000 miles on general recreation. At todays prices that means I'm spending about £1750 pa on fuel, even though I have an economical car.

As for the DIY route, I'm not a great DIYer, but my fater-in-law is a plumber/builder/mechanic/electrician/general go to kinda guy. I would therefore be able ot get some help creating the machine, so long as some reliable plans were available.

worried_jim

If your engine isn't common rail (i believe there called pd by vw group) you can just run on svo or filtered wvo so there is no need to make bio (if it is common rail then you definitely need to make bio). Try and source your oil used to keep cost down, I get mine free so my only cost was the set up and filters. Make sure your car has a bosch pump and introduce your oil into the fuel supply gradually, if you can pre mix it all the better. Once you have done a tank on a high % maybe 80/20 wvo/dino get the fuel filter changed and get the mechanic to show you how to do it your self and carry a spare with you as I had by first veg issue this weekend when my filter got blocked with animal fats from the extreme cold weather and I suffered a breakdown, if I had changed the fuel filter annually this probably wouldn't have happened. The repair cost me £110 and a lot of inconvenience but after two years of running veg especially if you are spending £1750 on fuel it doesn't appear all that bad and it is running fine now.
The excitement/nerves that you will feel when you first pour some oil/homebrew in your fuel tank and drive away is quite something but you will soon kick yourself for not doing it sooner.
Good luck. Jim

Rolandtheroadie

Nemesis201077 wrote: »

Indeed I was aware of the 2500 per litres tax free. This is also per person, so I could make 2500 litres for me and 2500 for the missues, by the time the whole family's running on Biodiesel I'd have a shed that looked like a Esso station.

This is what I thought as well, unfortunately when it comes to bio, it changes to 2500 litres total as you would be classed as a group sharing premises and/or equipment.
I think you could still make 1500 litres of bio then use 1000 litres each of veg oil on top though.
You are supposed to keep records as well in case HMRC ever come knocking.

http://customs.hmrc.gov.uk/channelsPortalWebApp/channelsPortalWebApp.portal?_nfpb=true&_pageLabel=pageVAT_ShowContent&id=HMCE_CL_000205&propertyType=document

4.2.3 says about the 2500 total.

Nemesis201077

@Jester123 can I ask what type of system you use and how you wash/purify the bio. Do you use a water wash, or dry wash system? It seems these are the two largest concerns for making the processor with merits either way.