06/12/2007 (IC Wales) - EATING chips may be a guilty pleasure but it could also help you power your car and save the planet at the same time.

A renewables firm has established Wales’ first garage-style pump dispensing biodiesel made from used cooking oil.

Families living in Carmarthenshire and Swansea are being urged to take their used cooking oil to collection points at municipal waste disposal sites.

There they are collected by Ammanford-based Sundance Renewables, Wales’ first community-based cooking oil biodiesel plant, featuring a £100,000 processor which turns chip fat oil into vehicle diesel.

And Sundance makes sure it pays duty on the diesel, which it sells at just 97.5p per litre, well below the average 105p per litre price of conventional “mineral” diesel.

The use of vegetable oil as a cheap fuel caught on in Carmarthenshire three years ago – and people were not so fussy about paying duty.

In Llanelli, a special police unit nicknamed the “frying squad” was formed after hundreds of drivers were believed to be running their diesel cars on cooking oil.

Sniffing out unusually fragrant exhaust fumes, highway patrols collared several dozen offenders, who saved more than 40p a litre by diverting oil from the kitchen cupboard to under the bonnet.

The Asda supermarket in Llanelli even slapped a ration on cooking oil sales, after astonished internal auditors found that it was selling far more than any other outlet in the country. Customs investigators were also involved in the “sniff patrols”, which homed in on any car smelling like a mobile fish and chip shop.

“It’s a serious offence,” said Bill O’Leary, spokesman for customs and excise, which levies tax on motor oil but not on the version used in saucepans.

He said, “By law, all cars on public roads must pay a tax on the fuel they use. Evasion carries a maximum seven-year jail term.”

According to one victim of the crackdown, who did not want to be named, substituting 32p-a-litre cooking oil, with a dash of methanol, worked as sweetly in his diesel Subaru as the real thing.

Jan Cliff, project manager at Sundance Renewables, said customers of the not-for-profit organisation’s filling station at the Capel Hendre Industrial Estate did not have to worry about customs investigators. She said, “We pre-pay the duty for our customers and we have around 250 regulars at the moment.

“As well as the environmental benefits of preventing oil being thrown down drains, biodiesel gives off around 80% less emissions than mineral diesel depending on what types of oil are used and annual mileage.”

Trish Flint, a Recycling Officer on Swansea Council, said, “The use of biodiesel is becoming more and more popular as an alternative greener method of fuel.

“The majority of residents use some form of cooking oil in their home. Our aim has been to provide an environmentally friendly way to dispose of used oil. We have the facilities to enable residents to dispose of their cooking oil at four of our five civic amenity sites.”

Ms Cliff added, “We are pleased to be helping Swansea residents to make a difference by recycling their used cooking oil into bio-diesel which reduces emissions and the carbon footprint from burning fossil fuels.”

Used cooking oil can now be taken to four civic amenity sites at Llansamlet, Clyne, Garngoch and Penlan and Carmarthenshire has cooking oil collection facilities at five of its amenity sites.

The process Sundance uses to convert waste cooking oil to fuel useable in diesel engines is known as transesterifcation. It breaks down the oil and replaces glycol, which turns to jelly on contact with engine oil, with alcohol.