Any of you use vegetable oil on diesels?
 

Hello! I'm curious if any of you do this, veggie oil in diesels! I'm looking into it but I'm not sure my car will take it particularly well, but definitely a cool option.

Also - any resident UK-ers here? I've inherited a car and was wondering what taxes I'll pay if I sold it as I have no use and it's SORN rn. Had a look at a tax calculator and got some numbers but not convinced if that's right - any advice? (any input appreciated though! :) )

Thanks!

Some vegetable oil can be burned with diesel fuel.
But in newer diesels no vegetable oil can be used because it makes the fuel too thick.

Welcome to Ecomodder.

When I got my diesel car, I put in a few tanksfull [tankfulls?]

But there is only one dealer in the county. I have a car that burns clear (ethanol-free) premium and there are two choices the same distance away. The convenience of being able to pull into any station and finding what I want seduced me.

Biodiesel Retailer Listings - Biodiesel.org

Have you searched on "biodiesel [your location]"?

What car is that? Does it already have a DPF? If it doesn't have that, you'd be supposed to be safe with some vegetable oil blend (up to 20%). With some pre-heating of the fuel, you could even try 100% vegetable oil. If the car is fitted with direct injection, it would be advised to crank on regular Diesel fuel and allowing the engine to reach its operating temperature before switching to the veg oil. Some older irons with indirect injection on the other hand tend to deal better with veg oil.

Lectify, tell us more about your diesel vehicle.
 

I have used waste vegetable oil (WVO) in my old Mercedes Diesels as well as my Sprinter Vans and Dodge Cummins trucks. They all are capable of using WVO but with specific caveats.

I used to run my Mitsubishi L200 pickup on 20/80 ratio of diesel/SVO. In really cold weather I'd substitute a percentage of the diesel for petrol, never had a problem. It was all preheated etc.

On the plus side it was cheap, with virgin veg less than half the price of diesel. It's also low carbon, as the carbon emitted was only what the plant had extracted from the environment while growing (ignoring any inefficiencies caused by fuels used during cultivation of the crop and transporting the fuel).

The downside is that it's horrifically polluting, simply awful for particulates and nitrous oxides, so its really, really nasty for Human respiratory health. I wouldn't do it knowing what I know now.

I'm in England and can't see that you'd pay any taxes for selling the vehicle, unless you're running a vehicle sales business.

In the US about the time vegetable oil and diesel became the same price, suddenly and mysteriously the price of vegetable oil doubled.

I still do it.
Think about it this way, NOx and PM are local pollutants, CO2 is a global pollutant.

Local or global was small consolation when my neighbours kid died of a pollution related asthma attack and my best efforts couldn't save here. People are dying today of local pollutants, not in 50 years.

That recalibrated me completely - I refuse to use an engine for a journey I can walk or cycle, which puts me within a 15 or so mile radius, which turns out to be about 98% of my journeys. The only exception I make to that rule is for SAR callouts (I'm a SAR volunteer).

AFAIK the use of veg oils do increase the NOx emissions, but not the particulate matter. Well, at least as long as the injector pump is correctly adjustes. When it comes to NOx, recently I noticed some are actually used for medical purposes, including after complex surgical procedures.

Worred about tail pipe pollution?
Drive an electric or stuff it.

I drive an electric and I even bought a 10kw portable fast charger so I can drive it more.