Do-it-yourself diesel on the rise

Home-brew biodiesel is booming! DIY kits are flying off the shelves according to manufacturers, as derv pump prices rocket to £1.35 a litre.

One firm, Goat Industries in Bangor, Gwynedd, says sales of its Twyn Tub have risen by 25 per cent in the past year. And Green Fuels, based in Stroud, Glos, also claims that it’s struggling to keep up with demand. Company boss James Hygate told us: “We are shipping out three a day at the moment, but we’re four weeks behind in production.”

Makers of the kits say the eco-friendly fuel costs 15p a litre to produce, and thrifty car owners have been spurred on since tax on low-level biofuel production was axed last year. Meanwhile, with the price of cooking oil rising from £50 to £550 a tonne in the past five years, fast food outlets have seen a surge in the theft of waste cooking oil – the fuel’s raw material. Recycler Envirogroup, based in Faversham in Kent, collects 370,000 litres of waste oil a year to produce the green fuel, and it says sales of its £1.08-a-litre biodiesel have tripled in the past three months.

However, the Government’s recent Gallagher Report has called for a slowdown in production of plant-based fuel, to curb price rises for competing food crops.