Motoring Discussion > Truckstop - 200,000 litres of illegal fuel siezed Miscellaneous
Thread Author: Dave_ Replies: 12

 Truckstop - 200,000 litres of illegal fuel siezed - Dave_
Up to 217,000 litres of watered-down road diesel have been seized from a truck stop filling station at Junction 13 of the M1. Early indications suggest that kerosene, which has a lower duty rate than road diesel, had been added to legitimate diesel in a process known as ‘stretching’.

The illicit fuel was detected by HMRC Road Fuel Testing officers on Wednesday, May 18. All eight road diesel fuel pumps were immediately sealed off and the contaminated fuel removed from the site in nine tankers to be destroyed. Officers around the UK have already detected this fuel in lorries as far afield as Wiltshire and the West Midlands.

bit.ly/il9Zif

That's a rather big find at one of the UK's longest-established 24 hour truckstops!
Last edited by: Dave_TDCi on Sat 21 May 11 at 22:32
 Truckstop - 200,000 litres of illegal fuel siezed - ....
Police would have difficulty catching an empty 535d taking off...
 Truckstop - 200,000 litres of illegal fuel siezed - Pat
It's been noted that particular truckstop has been going downhill for some time Dave.

Pat
 Truckstop - 200,000 litres of illegal fuel siezed - Mike Hannon
How do they destroy it? Couldn't it be sold for use in space heaters or something?
 Truckstop - 200,000 litres of illegal fuel siezed - AnotherJohnH
That might explain some of the increase in "Esso blue" smell behind all kinds of stuff lately - not just a few scruffy old transits.
 Truckstop - 200,000 litres of illegal fuel siezed - MD
What damage would it do to dci engines?
 Truckstop - 200,000 litres of illegal fuel siezed - Bromptonaut
The linked press report refers to 'dangerous mix' and highly combustible kerosene'.

Aside from the fact that fuel is by nature combustible isn't kerosene (parrafin) a close fraction to diesel. It certainly replaced petrol as fuel for jet engines on the grounds of it being less volatile and therefore less risk in a survivable accident.
 Truckstop - 200,000 litres of illegal fuel siezed - Stuartli
A reasonably related incident (I live about five miles from Tarleton):

tinyurl.com/4yaeurx

The cheek of some of these scumbags takes a lot of beating...:-)
 Truckstop - 200,000 litres of illegal fuel siezed - CGNorwich

Kerosene can mean either:

28 second Kerosene. - The most common sort of oil used for domestic heating.

35 second Kerosene - A more viscous oil commonly known as Gasoil, medium diesel or Red diesel.

Jet fuel is very similar to diesel.




 Truckstop - 200,000 litres of illegal fuel siezed - Manatee
It is a close fraction to/overlap with diesel - shorter chains on average but similar flash/autoignition temperatures.

I guess diesel engines in general will appear to run quite happily on a diesel kerosene mix, or even 100% kerosene. The devil will be in the detail - kerosene is thinner at the same temperature than road diesel so could affect the performance of pumps and injectors, and even if it doesn't affect performance it will likely provide less lubrication.

Not something I'd knowingly take a chance on.
 Truckstop - 200,000 litres of illegal fuel siezed - Manatee
Just seen CGN's post. Paraffin and kerosene are not descriptions that are precise in meaning. The kerosene/paraffin used for adulterating the fuel will presumably be low-duty heating oil kind.

 Truckstop - 200,000 litres of illegal fuel siezed - Harleyman
The biggest difference is that both gas oil and DERV contain additives which lubricate the workings of an injector pump; these additives are responsible for a fair amount of the smoke that emanates from older diesels. Such engines will run perfectly happily on heating oil but it wrecks the pumps.
 Truckstop - 200,000 litres of illegal fuel siezed - sooty123
You need to add a some cheap thin oil for lubrication if you use that sort of thing in your old diesel.
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