Anybody can make biodiesel. It's simple, you can make it in your kitchen area-- and it's BETTER than the petro-diesel fuel the big oil companies offer 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 environment and better for health.

If you make it from used cooking oil it's not just low-cost however you'll be recycling a problematic waste item. Best of all is the GREAT feeling of liberty, self-reliance and empowerment it will offer you. Here's how to do it-- everything you need to understand.

Straight grease fuel (SVO) systems can be a tidy, effective and affordable alternative. Unlike biodiesel, with SVO you have to modify the engine. The very best method 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 circumstances you can use petro-diesel, biodiesel or SVO, in any mix. Just launch and go, stop and turn off, like any other vehicle. Journey to Forever's Toyota TownAce van uses 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 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 switch back to petro- or biodiesel before you stop the engine, or you'll coke up the injectors.

More details on straight vegetable oil systems in my blog.

3. Biodiesel or SVO?

Biodiesel has some clear advantages over SVO: it operates in any diesel, without any conversion or adjustments to the engine or the fuel system-- simply put it in and go. It also has 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-term tests in numerous nations, consisting of millions of miles on the road.

Biodiesel is a tidy, safe, ready-to-use, fuel, whereas it's reasonable to state that many SVO systems are still experimental and need further development.

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 new oil or utilized oil (and depending upon 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 when a month and soon get used to it. Many have actually been doing it for years.

Anyway you have to process SVO too, especially WVO (waste grease, utilized, prepared), which lots of individuals with SVO systems utilize due to the fact that it's cheap or free for the taking. With WVO food particles and pollutants and water must be removed, and it most likely should be deacidified too. Biodieselers state, "If I'm going to need to do all that I might as well make biodiesel instead." But SVO types belittle that-- it's much less processing than making biodiesel, they state. To each his own.