Is it illegal to run a car on waste oil?

Grimreaper666

Just wondering, thinking of running my old Merc on waste veg and engine oil and i'm hearing it's illegal to do it. Has anyone any ideas?

L1011

You need to pay fuel duty, rather than it being "illegal" as such.

Grimreaper666

Even on waste oil? I thought i had to pay the duty if i was using fresh veg oil but waste oil, especially waste engine oil would already have had the taxes paid on it first time around. I'm hearing now that you need a licence to burn waste oil now ffs!!

darragh o meara

Don't worry if you don't already pay excise on it you will soon. As far as I know what you have in your car is classed as biofuel which does have some excise attached to it.

There is a chap floating around here from Lismore who makes Biofuel from used oils ( username "Imakebiodiesel" or something along that lines) who could answer that question as from reading a previous post of his he had been in touch with the lovely people at revenue about it. Look him up he's around here somewhere but he usually pops up in threads like this.

BorneTobyWilde

MYOB wrote: »

You need to pay fuel duty, rather than it being "illegal" as such.

So pay duty,
put it aside in a lil box for them:P
If not caught then yay

Grimreaper666

I think it's more about revenue that saving the planet tbh, fcuking typical!!:mad:

dgt

Not illegal but you need to pay duty.

On waste oil you might be pulled in for "impending engine failure" if too much is used...

L1011

BorneTobyWilde wrote: »

So pay duty,
put it aside in a lil box for them:P
If not caught then yay

If caught, it'll be a hell of a lot more than the unpaid duty you'll owe them. In the order of making road diesel look positively economical to buy.

Grimreaper666 wrote: »

Even on waste oil? I thought i had to pay the duty if i was using fresh veg oil but waste oil, especially waste engine oil would already have had the taxes paid on it first time around. I'm hearing now that you need a licence to burn waste oil now ffs!!

Engine oil will not have had fuel duty paid on it - its not sold as fuel.

And yes, you would need a licence from the EPA to burn waste oil, probably wouldn't get one either

quenching

As others have said you can use what you like but you need to pay duty on it, once you pour whatever it is into the fuel tank and start to use it its classrf as fuel and duty is applicable, HOWEVER, last time I checked with Revenue (about a year ago) they had no way of accepting the duty you might try to pay! There was no form to fill in, no box to tick etc. I even asked could I send in a cheque with a letter of explanation but they said they would just return it

Hopefully this has now changed but I doubt it very much and it took me so long to actually talk to someone who could answer the question I'm not inclined to ask again.

mickdw

There is a kmown process for Paying the duty. I think its over 40c per litre. The process of the turning waste oil into a suitable fuel would cost in the region of 20c per litre with a start up cost of 8 or 900 for equipment. You are therefore fully legal at 60 per litre approx.
Very worthwhile if running a car that will burn 80 to 100 percent biodiesel. If you can only run 50%, the savings are not so great but still worthwhile.
To pay revenue, you get registered as a fuel warehouse - I think that is the term they use. A revenue official will visit. I believe most of the form filling is cancelled out when it is only biodiesel for personal use. I also believe you pay in 1000L bundles in advance. I don't quite know how revenue would track the number of litres you use apart from an audit of your chemical purchases etc and your car mileage records.

bijapos

If you are using waste engine oil as a fuel your emissions would go through the roof, you can also expect a lot more smoke from the exhaust thus attracting attention to yourself. Veggie oil burns a lot cleaner.

aujopimur

At least you won't have guys driving up your hole, I find the smoke from my DKW keeps them off my tail.

Matt Simis

bijapos wrote: »

If you are using waste engine oil as a fuel your emissions would go through the roof, you can also expect a lot more smoke from the exhaust thus attracting attention to yourself. Veggie oil burns a lot cleaner.

Waste engine oil requires serious filtering (to at least 1micron, there are rotational/centrifugal filters for this purpose) to be burned safely (for the engine). Can you imagine if pump diesel came out black with dirt and particles in it? No one would put that in their car.

bbam

BorneTobyWilde wrote: »

So pay duty,
put it aside in a lil box for them:P
If not caught then yay

Couldnt I use the same agrument for marked (green) diesel!

Matt Simis

bbam wrote: »

Couldnt I use the same agrument for marked (green) diesel!

There is a specific law/policy on Marked Oils, so no, its not the same. If they dipped you running on Veg Oil, they wouldnt see the chemical marker for an untaxed oil. They most likely wouldnt do anything about it at all.

Grimreaper666

Matt Simis wrote: »

There is a specific law/policy on Marked Oils, so no, its not the same. If they dipped you running on Veg Oil, they wouldnt see the chemical marker for an untaxed oil. They most likely wouldnt do anything about it at all.

From what i'm hearing now you're obliged to pay the duty on Veg oil to the revenue.

af_thefragile

Grimreaper666 wrote: »

From what i'm hearing now you're obliged to pay the duty on Veg oil to the revenue.

Even if its used "bio fuel" oil?

So much for helping the environment, going green and all...