So I decided to put vegetable oil in the diesel tank of my big Toyota family carrier, ostensibly to save the environment, but really because, here in the UK it’s a lot cheaper than diesel fuel (about half-price). First time I tried it I was a bit worried that I would fry my engine and so I only put in about a litre of rapeseed oil for 20 litres of diesel and it ran great. Since then I’ve been putting about 10 litres of veggie oil for every 20 of diesel and it works really well. If anything, it runs even smoother – beaut! I have noticed however, that if I’m standing behind the vehicle whilst it’s running in idle, it smells a lot less like a truck and a lot more like a doughnut fryer!
The reason that it’s better for the environment is that vegetable oil is carbon-neutral, in that, whilst it contributes carbon to the atmosphere, the act of growing more rapeseed to replace the oil used will scrub out any carbon produced in burning it. Apparently, Mr Diesel (if that was his name) developed the diesel engine with the intention of it running on vegetable oil. Diesel fuel was developed in response by the oil & gas industry in a bid to destroy all life on the planet.
One difficulty with doing this is the fact that it’s illegal. Well it isn’t exactly illegal. It’s just that diesel fuel – and petrol (or gasoline) is taxed to the hilt and so, by buying vegetable oil instead of diesel fuel, you’re doing the government out of a lot of revenue (whilst doing your bit to save the environment). And the avoidance of tax is in fact illegal. But it has emerged that it is possible to visit a government website and download a certain form with which you can record the amount of vegetable oil you’ve been using in your vehicle and you can return the form duly enclosing your cheque for the tax owed. Well, THAT’S good to know!
