IN these days of rapidly increasing fuel prices, a Murdoch PhD student has found an unusual answer to the problem.

Murdoch Environmental Science postgraduate student Phillip Calais is using a mixture of recycled canola oil and alcohol to make biodiesel to power his diesel-engined Toyota Corolla, and reckons it is better than conventional diesel fuel.

Mr Calais said biodiesel was popular in Europe where it was readily available at many service stations.

“Biofuel is less polluting than conventional diesel fuel and offers better performance at less than a quarter of the price,” he said.

Mr Calais, who obtains his supplies of used canola oil from the Murdoch University Refectory, processes the oil himself to run in his own vehicle.

Blending the canola with alcohol caused a chemical reaction that produced biodiesel, he said.

“While it is technically possible to run a diesel engine on pure canola oil it is quite viscous and would tend to clog up the moving parts,” he added.

“The reaction with the alcohol also enables the canola oil to burn more easily.”

He said the original diesel engine invented more than 100 years ago in Germany by Rudolf Diesel ran on vegetable oil.

“It wasn’t until the early part of the 20th century that what we now call diesel became readily available,” he said.

As one of Australia’s biggest growers of canola seed, producing around one million tonnes per year, WA seemed like the ideal place to market biodiesel, maintained Mr Calais.