Anybody can make biodiesel. It's easy, you can make it in your kitchen 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 utilized cooking oil it's not just inexpensive however you'll be recycling a frustrating waste product. Most importantly is the GREAT feeling of freedom, independence and empowerment it will provide you. Here's how to do it-- whatever you need to know.

Straight grease fuel (SVO) systems can be a clean, reliable and affordable alternative. Unlike biodiesel, with SVO you have to modify the engine. The best way is to fit a professional 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 automobile. 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 regular petroleum diesel or in one tank and after that switch 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 info on straight grease systems in my blog site.

3. Biodiesel or SVO?

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

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

Biodiesel is a tidy, safe, ready-to-use, alternative fuel, whereas it's fair to say that many SVO systems are still speculative and need more 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 utilized oil (and depending upon where you live). And unlike SVO, it has actually to be processed initially.

But the big and rapidly growing worldwide band of homebrewers don't mind-- they make a supply each week or once a month and soon get used to it. Many have been doing it for many years.

Anyway you need to process SVO too, specifically WVO (waste grease, used, cooked), which many individuals with SVO systems use since it's cheap or totally free for the taking. With WVO food particles and pollutants and water must be removed, and it probably should be deacidified too. Biodieselers state, "If I'm going to need to do all that I might too make biodiesel rather." But SVO types belittle that-- it's much less processing than making biodiesel, they say. To each his own.