Anybody can make biodiesel. It's easy, you can make it in your cooking area-- and it's BETTER than the petro-diesel fuel the big oil business offer you. Your diesel motor will run 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 low-cost however you'll be recycling a troublesome waste item. Most importantly is the GREAT feeling of liberty, self-reliance and empowerment it will provide you. Here's how to do it-- whatever you require to know.

Straight veggie oil fuel (SVO) systems can be a tidy, reliable and affordable option. Unlike biodiesel, with SVO you need to the engine. The very best way 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 use 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 have to start the engine on ordinary petroleum diesel or biodiesel in one tank and then 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 details on straight veggie oil systems in my blog.

3. Biodiesel or SVO?

Biodiesel has some clear benefits over SVO: it works in any diesel, with no conversion or adjustments to the engine or the fuel system-- just 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). Unlike SVO,

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

Biodiesel is a clean, safe, ready-to-use, alternative fuel, whereas it's fair to state that lots of SVO systems are still experimental and require additional advancement.

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

But the big and quickly growing worldwide band of homebrewers do not mind-- they make a supply weekly or once a month and quickly get used to it. Many have been doing it for years.

Anyway you need to process SVO too, specifically WVO (waste vegetable oil, used, prepared), which many individuals with SVO systems use due to the fact that it's low-cost or free for the taking. With WVO food particles and impurities and water should be removed, and it probably ought to be deacidified too. Biodieselers state, "If I'm going to need to do all that I may as well make biodiesel instead." But SVO types belittle that-- it's much less processing than making biodiesel, they state. To each his own.