Anybody can make biodiesel. It's easy, 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 utilized cooking oil it's not just low-cost but you'll be recycling a troublesome waste item. Best of all is the GREAT feeling of freedom, independence and empowerment it will offer you. Here's how to do it-- whatever you require to understand.

Straight grease fuel (SVO) systems can be a tidy, reliable and cost-effective option. Unlike biodiesel, with SVO you need to modify the engine. The very best method 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 example you can utilize petro-diesel, biodiesel or SVO, in any mix. Just start up and go, stop and turn off, like any other cars and truck. Journey to Forever's Toyota TownAce van utilizes an Elsbett single-tank system. More

There are likewise two-tank SVO systems which pre-heat the oil to make it thinner. You need to start the engine on common petroleum diesel or biodiesel in one tank and then 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 information on straight grease systems in my blog site.

3. Biodiesel or SVO?

Biodiesel has some clear benefits over SVO: it operates in any diesel, with no conversion or adjustments to the engine or the fuel system-- simply put it in and go. It also has much better cold-weather residential or commercial properties than SVO (however not as excellent as petro-diesel-- see Using biodiesel in winter). Unlike SVO,

it's backed by lots of long-lasting tests in many countries, consisting of countless miles on the road.

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

On the other hand, biodiesel can be more pricey, 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 needs to be processed initially.

But the big and rapidly growing worldwide band of homebrewers do not mind-- they make a supply every week or when a month and soon get utilized to it. Many have actually been doing it for many years.

Anyway you have to process SVO too, especially WVO (waste vegetable oil, used, prepared), which lots of people with SVO systems use because it's inexpensive or complimentary for the taking. With WVO food particles and pollutants and water should be eliminated, and it probably needs to be deacidified too. Biodieselers state, "If I'm going to need to do all that I might also make biodiesel instead." But SVO types discount that-- it's much less processing than making biodiesel, they say. To each his own.