Anybody can make biodiesel. It's simple, you can make it in your kitchen-- and it's BETTER than the petro-diesel fuel the huge oil companies sell you. Your diesel motor will run much better and last longer on your home-made fuel, and it's much cleaner-- better for the environment and better for health.

If you make it from used cooking oil it's not only cheap however you'll be recycling a frustrating waste item. Most importantly is the GREAT feeling of freedom, self-reliance and empowerment it will provide you. Here's how to do it-- everything you require to understand.

Straight grease fuel (SVO) systems can be a tidy, efficient and cost-effective choice. Unlike biodiesel, with SVO you have to modify the engine. The finest method is to fit an expert singletank SVO system with replacement injectors and glowplugs optimised for veg-oil, along with fuel heating.

With the German Elsbett single-tank SVO system for example you can utilize petro-diesel, biodiesel or SVO, in any mix. Just begin up and go, stop and turn off, like any other car. Journey to Forever's Toyota TownAce van utilizes an Elsbett single-tank system. More

There are also two-tank SVO systems which pre-heat the oil to make it thinner. You need to start the engine on regular petroleum diesel or biodiesel in one tank and after that switch to SVO in the other tank when the veg-oil is hot enough, and switch back to petro- or biodiesel before you stop the engine, or you'll coke up the injectors.

More details on straight vegetable oil systems in my blog site.

3. Biodiesel or SVO?

Biodiesel has some clear benefits over SVO: it operates in any diesel, without any conversion or modifications to the engine or the fuel system-- simply put it in and go. It likewise has better cold-weather properties than SVO (however not as good as petro-diesel-- see Using biodiesel in winter season). Unlike SVO,

it's backed by numerous long-lasting tests in lots of countries, including millions of miles on the roadway.

Biodiesel is a tidy, safe, ready-to-use, alternative fuel, whereas it's fair to state that numerous SVO systems are still experimental and require additional development.

On the other hand, biodiesel can be more expensive, depending how much you make, what you make it from and whether you're comparing it with brand-new oil or utilized oil (and depending upon where you live). And unlike SVO, it has actually to be processed first.

But the large and quickly growing worldwide band of homebrewers don't mind-- they make a supply each week or when a month and soon get utilized to it. Many have been doing it for years.

Anyway you need to process SVO too, particularly WVO (waste grease, utilized, cooked), which lots of people with SVO systems use since it's inexpensive or free for the taking. With WVO food particles and pollutants and water need to be eliminated, and it probably must be deacidified too. Biodieselers state, "If I'm going to need to do all that I may also make biodiesel instead." But SVO types discount that-- it's much less processing than making biodiesel, they state. To each his own.