Fuel from fish oil easy as baking a cake

By Catharine Munro
August 7, 2005
The Sun-Herald

Vegetable oil ... Luke Williams.
Photo: Simon Alekna

An underground movement of motorists is making fuel in their backyards and saving up to $1 a litre to run their diesel engines.

As oil prices continue to soar to historic highs, they are following an easy recipe available on the internet for making biodiesel fuel and putting it straight into their engines without modification.

Concocted from used vegetable oil that fish and chip shops give away, the fuel is hailed as being almost smog-free, extremely cheap and almost limitless in supply because it comes from a crop rather than an oil well.

Few are willing to admit publicly that they make the brew because the Federal Government imposed a new tax and costly tests.

Small businessman Luke Williams admits he is breaking the law when he mixes a batch of biodiesel without registering with the Tax Office. He pays about 20 cents a litre for the ingredients instead of at least $1.20 for diesel from the bowser. Instead of sooty fumes, his car emits a slight odour reminiscent of the fish and chip shop from which it came.

The recipe is precise but easy, Mr Williams said. "If you can bake a cake, you can do it."

Although the chemicals can be bought in a supermarket shelf, they are highly toxic and should be mixed in a shed. "It's not a good idea for people in flats to be doing it."

Mr Williams said fellow biodiesel-makers were too concerned about Australian Tax Office checks to speak publicly but enthusiasts believe about 1000 people across the country make their own fuel.

Under the federal laws, even backyard producers must pay $1400 for a test to ensure that every batch meets Australian standards. They must also pay a fuel excise of 38 cents a litre.

Adrian Lake, head of business development at one of Australia's first commercial producers Australian Biodiesel, said: "What's driving it now is the sheer price of oil. It has been hard to justify the investment but now the price of oil has gone up, there's quite a lot of investment."

Source: Smh.com.au