Running a Princess on cooking oil

Steve_Bentley · 10 Oct 2002

Caught the tail end of C4 news last night where apparently the police have been prosecuting people in a town in Wales for running their cars on cooking oil instead of diesel.

I've no idea how much cooking oil is (don't do the shopping or cooking!) but as there may be a 'scale' of boats is there also a scale of oils to run them on? Would your average Princess owner be happy with Marzola or is it strictly extra virgin olive oil?

brianrunyard · 10 Oct 2002

Marine diesel is probably cheaper, I think they stated on the news that cooking oil is about 46p/litre.
Mind you it would certainly smell better if you happened to spill some and apparently the exhaust smells sweeter, the customs people were able to detect who was using it by the smell from the exhaust.

Brian
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/brunyard

hlb · 10 Oct 2002

I was looking at that news. How is it that it's ok to run on gas with no tax. Or you can have steam power, the coal has no tax on it. So whats wrong with running your car on cooking oil. Would have thought the bother of going down the local shop for 100 or two gallons of chip fat more problamatical than the red diesel at 20/30pence per litre. Much better to run the car on Keracine mixed with hydraulic oil. Dont know the mix. Bugger!

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Haydn

Deleted User YDKXO · 10 Oct 2002

As far as Customs and Excise are concerned there's no problem using cooking oil or anything else, come to that, to fuel anything providing you declare it to them and pay the required duty (dont ask me how much that is). In any case, apparently, cooking oil shags your engine so its not worth it

hlb · 10 Oct 2002

Dont think you have to declare coal, do you. I'll ask Fred Dibna next time I see him!!

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Haydn

Steve_Bentley · 10 Oct 2002

I must admit I was a bit disappointed they didn't have better things to do with their time than prosecute people for this. One of things the government/s used as an excuse for the 'fuel excise escalator' if I recall was higher taxes help save 'the environment'- surely cooking oil is far more environmentally friendly to extract & refine than diesel?

If they spent more time looking for alternatives to oil they wouldn't have to sniff around middle-eastern politics so much...

Think I might spend the weekend seeing what I can run the car on from the kitchen.

Steve_Bentley · 10 Oct 2002

Can you also cook chips in diesel? nm.

no message.

Trevethan · 10 Oct 2002

Reckon Sunseekers already are partly fueled by excess sun tan oil that gets applied to the girlies that generally adorn 'em

Knew of a chap who once drove across America in a diesel truck from McDonalds to McDonalds towing a mini cracking plant that turned the waste oil into decent fuel.

Apparently the exhaust smelled of chips and he was given the oil for free - otherwise it just gets dumped.

Reckon burning veg oil (zero net carbon released into the atmosphere) is a lot better than burning a non-renewable. or dumping it in a landfill.

Suspect the excise men and their bosses care more for gouging motorists for every last penny in tax than allowing a renewable energy source to be used.

Does this mean when I develop an engine that runs on seawater they are going to fine me too?

bloody daft it is.

Nick

mtb · 10 Oct 2002

I had an interesting discussion with a fella , he is in the RAF now as a side project they wondered if it was possible to run a diesel engine on cooking oil so they set up an experiment .
Two main concerns, one was filtering the used oil obtained from a kebab establishment and the other was the viscosity of the cooking oil.
As we all know cooking oil viscosity is quite high , they over came this be fitting a heating element to heat the oil and lower the viscosity to a level that meant the injector's worked correctly .
No adverse engine problems occurred and the only draw back was if you did not like the smell of kebab's don't go behind.
This project was never intended to be used for road use more to run a generator both cheaply and ecologicaly friendly
Cheers
Mick

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/boats
I want a big steel ex trawler or tug v, cheap or swap for tug

sailbadthesinner · 10 Oct 2002

My friend runs his diesel car on the used oil from local takeaways
they let him have it for free
he was using vegetable oil to start with and the emmissions smelt faintly of cabbage on start up
i have no idea how he does it but he saves a fortune on fuelhe has been doing this for about two years now and the car has suffered no ill effects

Maybe, just once, someone will call me sir without adding, you're making a scene.

sailbadthesinner · 10 Oct 2002

Re: I jhave an ugly sister that runs on gin

with apologies to my sister who is in fact gorgeous

Maybe, just once, someone will call me sir without adding, you're making a scene.

tripleace · 10 Oct 2002

Volvo warranty

Can you imagine the problem trying to claim for a bent con rod or something with the engine smelling like a fish & chip shop

<A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.boating-ads.co.uk/365.html> Triple Ace Link</A>

Guest · 10 Oct 2002

As far as I'm aware, a diesel engine will run on any fuel, provided it's got a bit of diesel mixed in. Bit of petrol. bit of engine oil, extra virgin (what the hell's an extra virgin anyhow? either it is or it isn't!) lighter fluid etc.

jacksong · 10 Oct 2002

Absolutely. The process of turning cooking oil into biodiesel* is pretty easy [mix with methanol and sodium hydroxide in appropriate quantities] and enviuronmentally friendly but the government are far more interested in screwing users of fuel for tax than they are about the environment - thats just an excuse to make people still vote for them.

I looked into the fuel tax legislation a while back and barring certain exemptions if you could get a car to run on seawater - or even air - then you have to pay around 40p per litre duty on whatever you use, it sometimes makes me wonder what they plan to do about electric cars since you're not actually using anything up - just encouraging the flow of electrons

J

--
I am not a Frog, I am a free Womble

oldgit · 10 Oct 2002

somebody mention virgins ?NM

NM

Just hold tight dear it will not be so rough when we get round the corner,trust me.

Bergman · 10 Oct 2002

You don't actually use it raw so to speak.

Some processing needed. A friend of mine owns a restaurant on a Scotish island, costs a fortune in disposong of used cooking fat. He converts it to diesel and uses in central heating and in Land Rover, but we deny this.

Try looking at :-
http://www.biodiesel.com/
http://www.biodiesel.com/honolulu.htm

You could save some cash!

Bergman · 10 Oct 2002

You don't actually use it raw so to speak.

Some processing needed. A friend of mine owns a restaurant on a Scotish island, costs a fortune in disposing of used cooking fat. He converts it to diesel and uses in central heating and perhaps in Land Rover, but we deny this.

Try looking at :-
http://www.biodiesel.com/
http://www.biodiesel.com/honolulu.htm

You could save some cash!

DepSol · 10 Oct 2002

Re: somebody mention virgins ?NM

whats a virgin?

Dom

I am boating again ;-)

oldgit · 10 Oct 2002

Re: somebody mention virgins ?NM

Anybody who can run faster than you...................

Just hold tight dear it will not be so rough when we get round the corner,trust me.

Running a Princess on cooking oil

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