Students Gas Up Buses with Fryer Oil

Students Turn to Fast Food for Cleaner Fuel Recipe
Va. Chemistry Class Creates Biodiesel Out of Used Fry Oil

"We were interested in putting together a hands-on project to enhance chemistry" lessons, Peery said. "I was booting around the Internet when I found information on biodiesels. I thought, 'How hard could this be to make?' "

Apparently, not too hard for junior high school students. Using two-liter plastic soda bottles -- affectionately known in biodiesel circles as the "Dr Pepper technique" -- the teenagers combined a prepared mixture of lye (sodium hydroxide) and methyl alcohol with the waste vegetable oil from Burger King.

Shake it up, let it sit overnight to separate and two products emerge: biodiesel (methyl ester) and glycerin (if you're thinking soap, you're right, but the kids discarded that part). Then they cut their fuel with 40 percent regular petroleum diesel and fed it to the bus.

They need the chemistry because transesterification, the reaction they are doing in their soda bottles, is a reaction with a fairly low initial energy cost. In other words, its a reaction that would occur normally in the hot, pressurized environment of the engine. When they do the reaction in a controlled environment (the soda bottles) they get biodiesel and glycerine, and can easily separate the two out. If the reaction was to take place in the engine, they would get (1) esterification of motor oil components and (2) esterification of the glycerine. (1) and (2) add up to varnish, which will destroy the engine.

Heated vegetable oil does not fall into the US government's statutory definition of a "motor vehicle fuel" on which taxes are due.

Same idea as "taxable income" or "any firearm." The definition of the word or phrase within the law is what matters.

My brother converted an old Mercedes 240D just recently, I helped him run the coolant/grease hose assembly. He's got a very spiffy setup for heating the grease filter, consisting of epoxy and a coil of copper tubing.

Greasel.com

"does not fall into the US government's statutory definition"

It has nothing to do with the definition of fuel. The taxes in gasoline and fuel sales are a road use tax. If one is not paying a road use tax for the milege in that state, then this is an offense.

It just like driving an OTR truck. One is required to pay the road use tax for that state by either buying fuel to cover the mileage in that state or paying tax and keeping the receipt. Out of this tax collected for each state, part goes to the Feds.

It has nothing to do with the definition of fuel. The taxes in gasoline and fuel sales are a road use tax. If one is not paying a road use tax for the milege in that state, then this is an offense.

Just so we're clear, I'm talking about cars using the Greasecar or Greasel conversion kits allowing them to run on straight, unprocessed, filtered vegetable oil, not biodiesel.

26 USC 4083 defines a "taxable fuel" as follows:

Sec. 4083. - Definitions; special rule; administrative authority
(a) Taxable fuel - For purposes of this subpart -
(1) In general - The term ''taxable fuel'' means -
(A) gasoline,
(B) diesel fuel, and
(C) kerosene.

And subsequently defines "diesel fuel" as follows:

(3) Diesel fuel
The term ''diesel fuel'' means any liquid (other than gasoline) which is suitable for use as a fuel in a diesel-powered highway vehicle or a diesel-powered train.

So under the wording of this law, heated vegetable oil is "diesel fuel," and therefore a "taxable fuel," but since there's no "refinery," "terminal," "entry into the United States," or "sale" involved for obtaining waste vegetable oil from Burger King for free, there is no tax imposed under 4081(a) - which imposes the 24.4c/gallon tax on:

(i) the removal of a taxable fuel from any refinery,
(ii) the removal of a taxable fuel from any terminal,
(iii) the entry into the United States of any taxable fuel for consumption, use, or warehousing, and
(iv) the sale of a taxable fuel to any person who is not registered under section 4101 unless there was a prior taxable removal or entry of such fuel under clause (i), (ii), or (iii).

Biodiesel falls under these provisions because it falls under the provisions of 4081(c), taxable fuels mixed with alcohol. Since there's more than 10% methanol involved in production of biodiesel, it is a "qualified alcohol mixture" under (c)(3)(B)(ii).

However, I think you're correct in that there's a "catch-all" provision in 26 USC 4041(a)(2)(ii), "There is hereby imposed a tax on any liquid (other than gas oil, fuel oil, or any product taxable under section 4081) - (ii) used by any person as a fuel in a motor vehicle or motorboat unless there was a taxable sale of such liquid under clause (i)."

The question then becomes how do you know they didn't pay the tax?

"how do you know they didn't pay the tax?"

Just as you would for any commercial vehicle, you are required to keep the receipts with the vehicle at ALL times to the end of that month. This is where to roving "weight men" and scale houses come into play.

If they can smell french fries or straight alcohol, you have to have already paid the tax and have the receipt to prove it. Same goes for farm vehicles that buy untaxed fuel but on occasion drive on public roads...they have to pay a tax.

You cannot get around taxes.

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