Has anyone checked this site www.dieselsecret.com? They sell a concentrate to convert the vegetable oil at a cost of 46 cents per US gallon.
Also do I have to pay excise on the bio-diesel I make for myself? I have a Landrover.

Appreciate any advice

Thanks John Crisp

hi John
welcome to Bio Fuels forums. diesel secret has been discussed b4 on many biofuel sites and has been found to be snake oil. my advise is to stay far far away from it, it is nothing but a scam. to your other question......pay excise on fuel you make well it would be more trouble than it is worth, best thing would be to make it, put it in ya vehicle use it and just keep quiet about what you are doing. The ato requires that you make your bd to atsm standards and to prove that you fuel is up to this standard you are required it get it tested. I believe that the cost of testing is quite expensive. Each batch would have to be tested to ensure that it meets this standard. by doing a search of this forum you will find threads on the pros and cons of paying excise. hope this has been of some help to you.
cheers Fantom.

Thanks for your help I thought it sounded too good to be true. I think I'll look into a small commercial plant as we use a 1000 litrs per week of diesel at work. I can get vegetable oil at 57 cents a litre in 1000 litre quantities. Does that sound like a fair price as it seems it will cost an extra 20 cents a litre to make it into biodiesel.

John Crisp

Just a minor point, but the standard required for biodiesel to meet, to be eligible for the cleaner fuels grant, is the Australian Standard, not the USA ASTM standard.
John,
If you would like to use vegetable oil as a fuel, there are 3 means of doing so:

1. Make Biodiesel from the oil - This reduces the viscoosity by chemically altering the triglyceride into Mono Alkyl Esters (biodiesel). Making biodiesel (from used cooking oil) is around 80% renewable, the other 20% is due to the methanol (petroleum product) caustic and energy used in processing. Biodiesel made from high melting point oils will have a relatively high melting point. Tallow biodiesel melts at around 15°C
2. Heat the vegetable oil to reduce the viscosity. When the oil cools down, it has a high viscosity again. Using straight veggie oil (from used cooking oil) is very close to 100% renewable (the life-cycle emissions are assigned to the intended first use of the oil). Engine coolant is normally used to heat the oil, but electric heating can be used in a limited way. It is recognised that the safest way to use straight vegetable oil is in a 2 tank system, where the engine is started and shutdown on diesel and when the engine is hot, vegetable oil is used. If high melting point oils are used, all parts of the fuel systme will need to be heated to allow the oil to melt and then flow.
3. Dilute the vegetable oil with another liquid (petrol, kerosine, diesel or something else). Blending used cooking oil with any petroleum product is renewable to extent of the % of the blend which is used vegetable oil.
   It is not recommended to use a blend in a CAV, Lucas or Delphi brand IP, due to the strong possibility of IP failure pumping the cold blend. There is a possibility that coked oil may accumulate o nthe compression rings due to using cold oil.

DSE falls into the category of a Blend, and an expensive one at that too.

Tony