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

Step 2: Shred Toilet Paper.

This step is optional, but it works better if you do.

Simply tear/shred the toilet paper into strips and loosely put it into the container. You need more than you think.

Step 3: Add Toilet Paper to Oil.

Once again, pretty easy.

Add the shredded paper to the oil and agitate it. I used the other end of a sharpie. (Toilet paper isn't the only thing you can use. Any absorbent fiber will work.)
You have added enough fiber when you can pick it up gently with only a small amount of oil dripping out. You should be able to squeeze out a fair amount of oil. Adjust the amount of oil/fiber to achieve this ratio.

Step 4: Add Alcohol

Now the alcohol is added.
Add about 1/4 of a jar of alcohol, enough for it to light easily but not too much.
Again, any flammable alcohol is suitable, but you may need more/less depending on the strength.
Let it soak in and then stir/shake vigorously to thoroughly mix the alcohol and oil.

Step 5: Done!

Now you are done.

I took this on a 3 day hike to cook food on, and found it a bit slow, but that was also the stove & pot's fault.
It is amazing to light fires with, as you just chuck a blob under a bundle of kindling and away it goes. I'm sure there are many uses for this, and it's a very versatile fuel. You could replace the vegetable oil with some other kind of oil you have handy, or adjust the ratios. I will post some pictures of it burning at a later date.

Please rate and comment, and feel free to make suggestions or alterations as you see fit.

*This is a fuel. Treat it as such. This will burn you if you aren't careful. I'm not responsible for anything you do with this.*