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 huge oil business offer 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 just inexpensive but you'll be recycling a troublesome waste item. Most importantly is the GREAT sensation of flexibility, independence and empowerment it will offer you. Here's how to do it-- whatever you require to know.

Straight grease fuel (SVO) systems can be a tidy, reliable and affordable choice. Unlike biodiesel, with SVO you have 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, 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 start 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 . You need to start the engine on common petroleum diesel or biodiesel in one tank and after that change 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.

3. Biodiesel or SVO?

Biodiesel has some clear advantages 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 much better cold-weather homes than SVO (however not as good as petro-diesel-- see Using biodiesel in winter). Unlike SVO,

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

Biodiesel is a clean, safe, ready-to-use, alternative fuel, whereas it's reasonable to state that many 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 upon where you live). And unlike SVO, it needs 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 quickly get utilized to it. Many have been doing it for years.

Anyway you need to process SVO too, especially WVO (waste grease, used, prepared), which lots of individuals with SVO systems use due to the fact that it's cheap or totally free for the taking. With WVO food particles and impurities and water need to be eliminated, and it most likely ought to be deacidified too. Biodieselers state, "If I'm going to need to do all that I may also make biodiesel instead." But SVO types scoff at that-- it's much less processing than making biodiesel, they say. To each his own.