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Not having a television, I had not heard about the  blockade of oil refineries by the farmers and lorry drivers.  I was therefore not unduly alarmed when I saw the queues forming at every petrol filling station in our area of North Wales, at the beginning of  what was to become the fuel crisis in 2000.  I had not realized that there was a spate of panic buying of petrol and diesel caused by the direct action against the supply of fuel.  I assumed the next petrol station would not be so crowded, and I carried on with my business that day not wanting to waste time in queues.  So by the time I did join a queue, I was nearly out of diesel, and my wife needed the car early in the morning to get to her early shift as a hospital nurse.  She did not want to have to shop for diesel in the early hours.

When I got to the head of the queue I was confounded by a simple sign which read:-

Sorry, no diesel

But by then all the diesel was sold out, and every station told me that there would be no more supplies for days, maybe even weeks.  I was desperate, but all I could do was to drive home hoping that the car would make it up the mountain to our house.  I got home, fearing what I would have to tell my wife.

As I got out of the car I looked at our nearly full kerosene tank.  How different was kerosene and diesel?  I remembered how old TVO tractors seemed to start on one fuel and then burn another.  I thought about it and what the risks might be.  If anything, the car would not run, or it would coke with unburnt carbon, and that would soon clear if revved up.  In any case I reconned that the short term use of an alternative fuel would not caused any major disaster.

So I drew about 10 liters of kerosene out of the central heating tank, and put it into the car.  I shook the car a bit to mix the kerosene with what little diesel was left and I started the car.  Nothing seemed different.  The engine ran as it had before.  I drove up the mountain road carefully, knowing that if anything went wrong I could at least drift down hill again and tell my wife the worst.  But nothing went wrong.  The car drove just as it did normally.  So I added some more kerosene, and thinking that this may not have any form of upper cylinder lubricant, I added a litre of vegetable fat that we would otherwise have put in our chip pan.  I did another test run and the car flew up the mountain.  Instead of making the normal 'clickety-click' noise, this time the engine had a distinct 'grunt'.  The exhaust had a nice smell as well.  So I left the car half full of fuel and I told my wife nothing.

I spent the evening exploring the internet on alternative transport fuels, and that is how I discovered sites telling me all about how to make BIO-DIESEL.  Early in the morning my wife drove the car to hospital unaware that she was breaking the law.  When she returned later in the afternoon, concerned that we only had half a tank of diesel left, I asked if the car was OK.  She looked a bit quissical but replied "It seemed OK - why?"  In other words what is wrong with our heap of a car now?  "And you had better get some fuel because they say there is no diesel anywhere around here"    I felt a bit like the magician who can pull countless silk handkerchiefs out of a hat. "Don't worry about the need to get more fuel.  I have that sussed."

Secretly,  I continued to put more kerosene and vegetable fat into the car until normal diesel supplies were restored.  But by now I was convinced that we should make some BIO-DIESEL, and I discussed the idea and copied pages of information to my practical friend Steve Williams.  He was immediately enthusiastic. Unlike me, Steve is the sort of person who if he does not have an engine in pieces somewhere, is looking for one.   He owned and once raced with a methanol burning motor-cycle, and knew something about the more unusual forms of engine.

We started getting the basic kit together, and contacted his friend Paddy to help with welding.  Paddy was even more enthusiastic, and before we could blink, he had made a Waste Vegetable Oil conversion for his Mercedes van.  This can be seen on the 'Goat Industries' website, and Paddy has gone on to develop an intricate conversion kit to enable most engines to run on SVO.  

It was from this simple beginning that 'Bio-Power' was formed, to explore and exploit all ways by which organic oils and fats can be profitably used as fuels, thereby reducing significantly the environmental effects of burning fossil fuels.  There is now a network of nearly 120 small businesses in the UK, and is involved in several major overseas contracts involving both processing plant and the supply of fuel.

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