Apparantly the law has been relaxed on the use of veg oil as a fuel. You can use upto 2500 litres without paying duty.
That's a common misconception and not correct.
Producers of "fiscal quality bio-diesel" are exempt from paying duty on production of less than 2500lts a year for their own use. [It costs HMRC more than that to administer and collect it.]
Straight vegetable oil that doesn't meet that exacting standard is a "Substitute fuel" and attracts tax at the full DERV rate. Users caught evading duty will be fined and have their vehicle seized and sold off in the normal way. [A nice little earner for the Customs.]
This is all explained in black and white on HMRC's website.
Portion of a thread moved over from Tech in here as it deserves a wider audience
Edited by Pugugly {P} on 09/12/2007 at 20:45
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That's a common misconception and not correct.
You have to admit that it is a grey area, at least.
There are plenty of examples of people who were registered and paying duty, having made it perfectly clear they were running on SVO, before the 2,500ltr exemption. After the exemption, they were told they wouldn't have to pay any more.
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So they were buying SVO and then paying 48p/p/ltr on top?? Why? Thats more than DERV...
Watch out for old Revenue tricks; can they prove what was said in a guilty-until-proved-innocent situation? If not they will have their vehicle seized and be hammered for "estimated" back duty, penalties and interest - and the Revenue inspectors are on commission now, even if it proves uncollectable.
This exemption for producers of proper bio-diesel was simply for the Custom's own benefit - they give nothing away lightly.
It's all there for everyone to [wants to] see on their site. They don't do grey areas; heads they win - tails you lose.
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That was my reading of the situation too Screwloose, but one of my colleagues was on the phone to HMRC the other day and they confirmed that SVO was also exempt - and they were going to put it in writing. Not sure it has materialised yet though......
New line in repairing veg-damaged CR engines coming up????
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RichardW
Is it illogical? It must be Citroen....
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That was my reading of the situation too Screwloose
Also mine, to begin with. If you read tinyurl.com/3buecf you will see my good self asking the same questions.
... but one of my colleagues was on the phone to HMRC the other day and they confirmed that SVO was also exempt - and they were going to put it in writing.
It doesn't surprise me.
"There is no definitive evidence to justify excluding SVO from the scope
of the fiscal definition." HMRC, Dec 2006. bloomingfutures.com/uploads/File/HMRC.pdf
There is a lot to suggest that HMRC are regarding SVO as qualifying for the duty-free rate for biofuel. Quote from the first website I gave:
***QUOTE***
I have the letter from HMRC stating that:
"Your production levels declared on form HO930: Excise duty on biofuels and other fuel substitutes, indicate you are producing less than the proposed limit de minimus of 2500 litres per annum. We therefore propose to remove you from our current list of registered producers of biofuels and other fuel substitues"
I have only ever told them I am using SVO and WVO, and been paying the higher ULSD rate of duty. I have never claimed to be useing biodiesel. Seems pretty clear then that they are including SVO and WVO in the exemption, doesn't it?
***ENDQUOTE***
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It comes down to the current legal definition of "biodiesel" & "diesel quality",
Diesel quality = A diesel engine must be capable of running on it
Biodiesel = A diesel quality fuel which :
1) It must contain biomass or waste cooking oil
2) It must not contain hydrocarbons
3) Its total ester content must not be less than 96.5% by weight
4) Its sulphur content must not exceed 0.005% by weight or be nil
SVO meets those requirements, so can be considered legally to be biodiesel.
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"SVO meets those requirements, so can be considered legally to be biodiesel."
No, it doesn't meet 3, so it isn't. To make veg oil into ester, you need to react it with methanol in the presence of caustic, giving a byproduct of glycerin.
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RichardW
Is it illogical? It must be Citroen....
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Toying of shifting this part of the debate into Discussion, its gone off topic, but that's not the point its a valuable thread in its own right.
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First of all, food grade rapeseed oil exceeds the fiscal requirement by a greater margin than biodiesel, as it is 100% ester of glycerol well above the lower limit of 96.5%.
What's more, there are countless people, myself included who have emails and letters from HMCE stating that you can use SVO to qualify for the 2500l limit. My letter states that you can pour supermarket oil in, as that's what I asked.
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>>To make veg oil into ester youneed to react it with methanol in the presence of caustic giving a byproduct of glycerin.
I don't claim to be a chemist, but my understanding of this process is that it is transesterification, ie it is converting one ester into a different ester (one that has more characteristics in common with regular derv). The rapeseed SVO, as Hamsafar mentions, is already an ester which easily meets the spec, albeit one that more sophisticated diesel engines struggle to run on.
Edited by nick74 on 10/12/2007 at 12:34
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I stand corrected:
www.biomotors.co.uk/133835.pdf
(On rapeseed oil at least). You learn something every day!
"ie it is converting one ester into a different ester "
No the process is converting triglycerides in esters - but seemingly not necessary with rapeseed oil. I might try some in our ZX TD, but I won't be putting it in the Xantia HDi!
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RichardW
Is it illogical? It must be Citroen....
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Make sure your ZX TD has a Bosche IP and then go ahead. I have a ZX TD and it loves it. Even in these cold months it starts first turn of the key in the morning (on 50% SVO).
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