Experimenting with Used Cooking Oil for Fuel and Rampant 'Fuel Theft'... Even Oil-Producing Countries Are in Turmoil

Used Cooking Oil Refining Video Gains Popularity on YouTube

Expert Warns of "Risk of Engine Damage"

After the Iran crisis, fuel prices in Australia have soared. Although Australia is an oil-producing country, it lacks sufficient oil refining facilities and therefore relies on imports for fuel. As fuel prices have surged, there have been a growing number of dangerous attempts to use discarded cooking oil as an alternative fuel.

According to reports from the New York Post and other foreign media on April 1 (local time), Bruce Dunn, an equipment specialist living in Queensland, Australia, recently released a video showing how to recycle used cooking oil into fuel. The video garnered 1.4 million views.

Used cooking oil. Not related to any specific expression in the article. Pixabay

His method involves filtering cooking oil through a fuel can and filters, then mixing it with diesel in a 50:50 ratio to create an alternative fuel. Dunn fueled his car with this synthetic fuel. However, this method can only be applied to older diesel vehicles equipped with mechanical fuel pumps. Dunn lamented, "It costs 500 Australian dollars (about 520,000 won) to fill up once. At 3.15 dollars (about 3,300 won) per liter, it's practically robbery."

Since the Iran crisis virtually shut down the Strait of Hormuz, Australia has been suffering from high inflation. A transport company in Victoria stated that it costs about 3,000 Australian dollars (about 3.12 million won) to fill up a truck with fuel. In Sydney, there have even been thefts where hundreds of liters of fuel were siphoned from parked trucks.

Australia, despite being a major oil producer with daily production exceeding 400,000 barrels, has been vulnerable in this crisis. This is because, to refine crude oil into diesel, gasoline, jet fuel, and other products, large-scale refining facilities are required, and Australia relies on imports of refined fuel products from neighboring Asian countries.

The International Energy Agency (IEA) has described this crisis as "the largest supply disruption in the history of the oil market."

While biodiesel is being discussed as an alternative, experts have questioned its effectiveness. The Australian federal government currently allows only fuel with up to 5% biodiesel content, and the production cost remains high at 2.2 Australian dollars (about 2,300 won) per liter.

There are also warnings that car fuel made from used cooking oil poses a fire hazard. Automotive expert David McEwan pointed out, "If you put non-standard fuel into a modern vehicle equipped with sophisticated control systems, it will damage the engine."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.