Secondary use of obsolete (drained) jet fuel

[grnkg]

Hello,

I've heared that jet fuel (kerosine) can be used to fuel a diesel car
or a house heating unit running on (red) gasoline.

Does anyone have experience on this matter?

Kind regards,
GR.

[Prevangor]

Yes. The guy who was cought stealing jet fuel from a JetBlue plane a few months ago. There was a thread on an other, bigger forum (I don't know whether it is allowed to mention the name). He claimed he was short of heating oil at home and could not afford the high price.

[Desert Rat]

i wouldn't recommend to use jet fuel in a car even diluted, the injection pump doesn't like it...

You could use it in a old tractor running gas-kerosene or i knew a guy in southern France using it to heat up a greenhouse during winter time...

[Bruspotter]

Hi


I know some guys who use it (I'm not going to name them closer neither the company). Actually it isn't allowed if I have understood correct. It's indeed not so good for some components of the engine, but it should keep together for several years. That's why you need a old diesel car with a old engine (good enough and robuste enough to handle it) wich can only serve several more years. You buy a cheep car, you drive cheap (in the case I mention the guys can get the Jet-A one fuel for free if they just drain part of the container ).

So even if the engine fails x-number of years later. It doesn't matters for these guys. They drove free for quite some time and even that alone is worth trying it if you know something of it. But I would certainly examin the possibility on the car that you want to drive with Jet-A one because it has to be possible of course.

btw If I'm correct it's not legal to drive with jet fuel in your car tank so I wouldn't cross the border with it. You might get a fuel controle one day .


Best regards, Yannick

[Stij]

btw If I'm correct it's not legal to drive with jet fuel in your car tank so I wouldn't cross the border with it. You might get a fuel controle one day .

If its illegal pay attention everywhere, espially if that old car happens to be an SUV. The "douane" checks trucks and SUV's regurarly for "red" gasoline, not only at the borders, but also in Flemish Brabant!!!

I wonder, would the car accelerate faster on Jet Fuel????

Stij

[Prevangor]

Of course this would be an illigal tax avoidence in many countries. But how will they catch you? Jet fuel has no marker - so they can not determine anything on the spot.

[Stij]

Of course this would be an illigal tax avoidence in many countries. But how will they catch you? Jet fuel has no marker - so they can not determine anything on the spot.

The smell or should I, being an aviation enthousiast, say "perfume"!!!!

Cheers,

Stij

[Prevangor]

Yet as long there is no marker, you could not proove an illegal abuse of tax-reduced or tax-free fuel. Could be some new fashionable additive. From liquified coal or organic matter or whatever.

[jan_olieslagers]

-) no I have no experience;
-) Let's stick to the technical facts, disregarding legal and deontological issues:

Jet fuels (A1 and others) are indeed near cousins to automotive diesel fuel.
The main difference being in the lubricity: Jet fuel is slightly thinner than diesel, thus it isn't as good a lubricant. Automotive diesel engines can very well be used in aviation (if one can manage the extra weight), but feeding some on Jet A1 would run havoc on the injection pump that depends on fuel for its lubrication.

[regi]

I don't know about jet fuel - kerosine.
But in winter time it has been normal practice to add some benzine to diesel fuel to avoid clogging of the diesel, so it doesn't form parafine due to the cold. ( see accident report of B777 at LHR )

In the older days it was normal practice during winter for people to tank first some benzine and than the rest with diesel.

The customs do check quite regularly , even normal cars. It has happened already 3 times with me.
The check is based only on colour. ( house burning fuel is the same as diesel but with a colour added) There have been some cases that criminals decoloured house burning fuel but this process added so much acid that it destroyed engines.
It is illegal because the special taxes for road fuel are not paid.
The grey area in legislation is the use of cooking oil. First of all: this is only detected because of the smell. No joke, it does smell like you drive around with a french fries shop.
If there is a test, they don't find the colour of house fuel. So with a normal test you escape.
In the same way , any other fuel used for a road vehicle where there hasn't been paid the extra taxes upon, is illegal. The fines are not standarised. The fine depends on a rough calculation of how much fuel you use annually.

Many farmers have been caught with red diesel because they are allowed to use house fuel in their tractrs and they have a storage tank + pump on their farm.

And so we come at the point of storage. Before many people had a storage tank or above the ground, or even in a tank underground, coupled on a small diesel pump.
But recent legislation says 2 things: the tanks must be tested for leaks. And above ground tanks must have a recipient that is as big as the tank, that, in case of a leak, there is no oil spill.

The government doesn't do the checks on the tanks. But the oil dealers are forbidden to supply oil to a non-audited tank.
So, the government knows which oil has been supplied where.

The fines are high, and it is not worth it.
Just pay for diesel and drive less.