The use of cooking oil as fuel may be legalized in France

We’ve all heard stories about how cooking oil can be used to power diesel engines, but it was illegal in France until now. However, the French parliament voted a 20 billion euro package a few days ago in response to rising inflation and potential energy shortages expected in the winter.

One good way to recycle cooking oil is to use it as fuel

Although it is still need to be approved by the Senate, it has been revealed that one would allow cooking oil to be used as a potential fuel in diesel vehicles. The petition is linked to the name of representative Julien Bayou, the secretary of the French Green Party, who justified his motion by saying that nine liters of fuel can be obtained from ten liters of properly reprocessed waste oil. In addition, he also referred to the fact that, according to some research, with this method, a conventional diesel emits up to 90 percent less greenhouse gases. According to the experts advocating the bill, while diesel costs more than two euros per liter at the gas station, the use of used oil as fuel is an immediate relief to the wallets of the French.

Is cooking oil really a good fuel?

Although the use of cooking oil as fuel seems very good at first glance, it is not that simple. First of all, you can’t just take the oil out of the frying pan and pour it into the car. What’s more, you can’t use it directly from the bottle either, because it’s too viscous and you’d cause the engine to fail. Because of this property, cooking oil can only be used in diesel cars, which is first filtered, processed, and then mixed with conventional diesel by the fuel producers.

This solution is not illegal everywhere

Although legislators in France are still talking about authorization the use of cooking oil in diesel cars, in the UK it is legal to run vehicles with cooking oil-based biodiesels. Here, however, if someone uses more than 2,500 liters per year, for which no duty has been paid, they must report it to the tax office.

(Euronews)