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As of June 30th, UK motorists have been brewing-up 2500 liters (660 U.S. gallons) of homemade biofuels without paying a penny in tax to the British exchequer. According to NewCarNet, anyone living in the island nation with a penchant for home chemistry can now cook-up their own biodiesel for one tenth of the cost of commercially available diesel. Setting aside the price of waste vegetable oil (i.e. none), the costs breaks down as follows: methanol (7.6p), Sodium Hydroxide (.52p), energy (0.12p) and purification 1p. Not including labor, that’s 9.24p ($.18) a liter. U.S. biofans will no doubt be discussing the implications at the National Biodiesel Conference and Expo in Orlando this February.
3 Comments on “UK Home Brew Diesel Now PC and Tax Free!...”
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That methanol price seems a bit low, but maybe it is cheaper in the UK than here.
I also use Potassium Hydroxide (KoH) as it is cheaper and easier to deal with IMO. So maybe it is all the same in the end.
I’ve calculated my COST for my homebrew Diesel at about .65¢ per gallon, which ironically was what I used to pay for petroleum Diesel back in 1982 when I started driving a Diesel car.
–chuck
http://chuck.goolsbee.org
the price of waste vegetable oil (i.e. none)
This remains true only so long as homemade biofuels remain a niche activity. If any significant percentage of the population got in on the act, the people producing the “waste” vegetable oil will realize it’s not truly waste and start pricing it accordingly.
Chuck: Less than a penny per gallon; or 65-cents per gallon?