How to make VOTPAA.

VOTPAA or Vegetable Oil, Toilet Paper And Alcohol is a FAOL (Fiber absorbed oil fuel) that arose from the need for an easy to light, slow burning oil fuel. I had some vegetable oil left over from frying some food and decided I was going to make good use of it. The oil by itself didn't burn at all when a flame was held to it. Even with a flammable liquid added, the flammable liquid would burn off first and leave a hot smoldering puddle of oil behind. I then thought about oil lamps, there are many different designs on instructables, but all of them used wicks. I thought wicks are great, but slightly flimsy, and not suited to how I wanted to use the fuel. After noticing I had a roll of toilet paper kicking around, I immediately put it to good use. Toilet paper is strong and very absorbent, great wick material. Even so, with the oil soaked into the toilet paper, the fuel still wouldn't take a flame. It would smolder and eventually burn, but took forever. Looking for something to make it more flammable, I thought of methylated spirits. For the unfamiliar, it's 95% ethanol with some poisonous additives. After adding about a 1/4 of a jar of spirits, I had a fuel that was very easy to light, slow burning and quite bright. 

VOTPAA was born.

Step 1: Gather ingredients

To make VOTPAA, you only need a few simple ingredients.

Toilet paper
Vegetable oil (It doesn't really matter about what sort, but usually canola or soy bean oil burns with the least smell)
Methylated Spirits (Once again, not too picky, it only needs to be pure enough to burn. So HEET, rubbing alcohol and almost any other sort will work)

Some sort of container. I found that glass is best, but plastic will do.
Stirring stick

Comments

[[e-mail]]

easy , effective thanks...

[rimar2000]

I use the wasted edible oil to fire my BBQ. Usually we do roasted meat over embers, here in Argentina.

[lukeyj15]

Sounds nice. What meat do you roast?

[rimar2000]

I eat mainly pork, because it has less uric acid. But also a bit of beef (cow): ribs, loin and other parts that I don't know how translate to English. Sausage, blood sausage and gizzard too. Sometimes chitterlings, chicken. Rarely, lamb. But sometimes goes a month or more between a roast and another, especially in winter. We do it mainly for family reunion/party.

[lukeyj15]

fair enough.