Frying Squad on scent of cooking oil motorists

The Daily Telegraph ^ | 10/10/2002 | Nicola Woolcock

[UKCajun]

Drivers trying to beat rising fuel costs have discovered a cheaper means of powering their cars - cooking oil.

They are mixing the oil, which costs 32p a litre, with methanol and using it in place of diesel, which retails at about 74p. Police and Customs officers are trying to tackle the problem by sniffing out offenders, whose cars give off a distinctive "chip shop" smell.

An increasing number of motorists in Llanelli, west Wales, are filling their tanks with cooking oil in place of diesel after word spread. The town's Asda supermarket sells more cooking oil than any other branch in Britain and is now limiting sales as a precaution.

A spokesman said: "Anyone seen attempting to wipe out our stock with bulk purchases would be stopped."

One driver said: "I've halved my motoring costs since I started running my diesel on cooking oil. The car runs just as well and even smells a lot better."

He was one of dozens to have their cars impounded in the police crackdown, and said: "I was stopped by an unmarked car which had blue lights flashing. The officer went to the fuel tank, dipped it, and found cooking oil.

"I put my hands up to the offence and the car was towed away. They said Customs would be notified."

The AA warned motorists of the dangers of running cars on cooking oil. Its spokesman said: "It could severely damage your vehicle."

The drivers of impounded cars are fined £500 and charged a £150 towing fee. Persistent offenders could face up to seven years in jail.

[UKCajun]

What's wrong with this picture?

[Cacique]

Hmm, never mind hydrogen fuel, I'll have mine with fried chicken.

[MadIvan]

Hmm, never mind hydrogen fuel, I'll have mine with fried chicken.

And chips, one presumes.

Regards, Ivan

[UKCajun]

Agreed. What about a Southern fried pork chop?!

[UKCajun]

Where are the enviro whackos on this one? I would think they would be outraged! Here you have renewable energy source, some of which is being recycled from "fish and chip" shops, and the UK govt is confiscating vehicles because the owners are not paying fuel tax! Maybe not, but they are sure paying VAT on the cooking oil! Go figure.

[coydog]

Now what business is it of theirs what a private car owner puts in the tank if it doesn't threaten anyone else's safety? I think it is unreasonable of the govt. there to expect people to pay ever-rising taxes on fuel.

[MadIvan]

Remember, when cooking oil is criminalised, only criminals will have cooking oil. ;)

Regards, Ivan

[UKCajun]

Agreed. 80% of the cost of fuel in the UK is tax to HM Treasury. Where's the Labour govt environmentalists' shame on this one? Hypocrites.

[Cacique]

BTW, a hearty welcome to FreeRepublic.

[UKCajun]

Thank you.

[Arthur Wildfire! March]

Persistent offenders could face up to seven years in jail.

Is England a free country? Really? Kind of reminds me of cigarette smuggling in America.

Didn't everyone want cars to burn off of ethonal? Something we can grow with crops. Not only that, but it lowers world dependence on Arab states. Just imagine if England could export oil to the US, and the US could export cooking oil to jolly 'ole England. If we allowed our people and farmers to be free to grow, produce, and consume as they see fit, my goodness! Bad 'ole oil no longer needed. Tankers no longer needed. Refineries no longer needed. ANWR no longer needed. No drilling anywhere. No oil spills. And America's farmers would make us rich!

Obviously, cars might need a little modification in the long term. Big Deal. Here's our alternative feul, and the liberals are hopping mad over a very temporary end run around their tax system. This just goes to show how liberals are always negative, anti-progressive reactionists.

This thread will be bookmarked.

[UKCajun]

Yeah--and BP, Shell, and others could get into the cooking oil business. Recycle all the Micky D's, Burger King, KFC frying oil!

[Arthur Wildfire! March]

The idea behind a gas tax in England was supposed to help people find alternatives to using that nasty gasoline. Now that people found the alternative feul, they remove the mask, don't they? Liberals come out completely foolish on this one. FReegards....

[ovrtaxt]

'He was one of dozens to have their cars impounded in the police crackdown'

This is a weird article. It starts out like just a technology or local interest story and then swerves into a POLICE CRACKDOWN?!? Why? What laws are being broken? Very badly written, very little information.

'The AA warned motorists of the dangers of running cars on cooking oil. Its spokesman said: "It could severely damage your vehicle." '

What business is it of the AA, whatever that is, if a motorist wants to damage his own vehicle? Stupid. And why is Customs involved?

Oh, wait. Customs. Tax collection. OOOOOHHHHHH. You don't say!

[Arthur Wildfire! March]

LOL... of course if you strip away the taxes, you would find that oil is much cheaper than cooking oil. But people finally did what the liberals claimed they wanted, they found an alternative to gasoline! It would benefit US farmers, perhaps. Further, the enviro-wackos won't like this because no university gets enough grant money for this. No college gets credit for discovering this. Just good old fashioned British ingenuity. No wonder I don't hear about British ingenuity-- it lands you in jail for seven years!

[UKCajun]

Thanks for the welcome. Yep. They are bonkers. And, everything is broken here--the transport system, roads, healthcare, the tax system, immigration, you name it. Pity for such a great country.

[unending thunder]

A good site to start is www.biodiesel.org which lists all the US sites where biodiesel can be bought(and useful links). Or A Google search including" vegetable oil, diesel, recipe" will come up with lots of home recipes.

Basically you make sodium methoxide by mixing methanol and sodium Hydroxide(lye in US) add to new or used vegetable oil (this is called tranesterification which breaks down longer fatty acid chains into more flammable shorter chains). Ideally this needs washing with water to remove other waste products.

Mfg cost in US is + - $1.50 per gallon (sells at approx $2.50 at the pump) but this is attractive in UK where diesel is $7 per gallon
Biodiesel also burns less CO2, produces less particulates (cause of asthma)and if made from used cooking oil (ex McDonalds or wherever)saves landfill sites.

It can be used for static diesel or vehicle engines but you need to remove rubber hose fittings and substitute with plastic, or rubber may rot. Adding 20% by volume of petrol diesel should resolve this.

Beware. Sodium Hydroxide and methanol require special handling (gloves, masks, ventilation etc.,)see COSSH rules in UK.

What's the drawback, I hear you ask?
The Gubment loses munny!

[ovrtaxt]

"Here's our alternative feul, and the liberals are hopping mad over a very temporary end run around their tax system. This just goes to show how liberals are always negative, anti-progressive reactionists. "

At USF in Tampa, (the home of Sami Al Arian, terrorist professor) I saw a story on local news here two days ago about the buses running on an ethanol/cooking oil mix. It's currently about the same price as regular diesel, but the pollution is greatly reduced. The leftists here are all for it. I guess they are more environmentally conscious at this point. The lust for money and control hasn't set in as of yet!

But I'm sure we all have faith in the control freaks, they'll be along shortly.

[SubMareener]

Next time some enviro-wacko tells you ADM runs the world, you tell them this story! Here we have a perfectly good use for all that GM corn, and the British government is opposing it!