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

If you make it from utilized cooking oil it's not just low-cost however you'll be recycling a frustrating waste product. Most importantly is the GREAT feeling of flexibility, self-reliance and empowerment it will give you. Here's how to do it-- whatever you require to understand.

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

With the German Elsbett single-tank SVO system for circumstances you can utilize petro-diesel, biodiesel or SVO, in any combination. Just start up and go, stop and switch off, like any other vehicle. Journey to Forever's Toyota TownAce van uses 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 normal petroleum diesel or biodiesel in one tank and then change to SVO in the other tank when the veg-oil is hot enough, and change back to petro- or biodiesel before you stop the engine, or you'll coke up the injectors.

More information on straight vegetable oil systems in my blog.

3. Biodiesel or SVO?

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

it's backed by numerous long-term tests in lots of nations, consisting of millions of miles on the roadway.

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

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

But the large and quickly growing worldwide band of homebrewers do not mind-- they make a supply every week or once a month and quickly get utilized to it. Many have actually been doing it for several years.

Anyway you have to process SVO too, specifically WVO (waste vegetable oil, used, prepared), which lots of people with SVO systems utilize due to the fact that it's low-cost or complimentary for the taking. With WVO food particles and pollutants and water should be eliminated, and it probably should be deacidified too. Biodieselers state, "If I'm going to have to do all that I may also make biodiesel rather." But SVO types scoff at that-- it's much less processing than making biodiesel, they say. To each his own.