There are at least three methods to run a diesel engine on biofuel using vegetable oils, animal fats or both. All three are used with both fresh and .

1. Use the oil simply as it is-- normally called SVO fuel (straight veggie oil);

2. Mix it with kerosene (paraffin) or petroleum diesel fuel, or with biodiesel, or blend it with a solvent, or with fuel;

3. Convert it to biodiesel.

The first two methods sound easiest, however, as so frequently in life, it's not rather that simple.

1. Mixing it

Vegetable oil is a lot more thick (thicker) than either petro-diesel or biodiesel. The purpose of mixing it or blending it with other fuels is to lower the viscosity to make it thinner so that it flows more easily through the fuel system into the combustion chamber.

If you're mixing veg-oil with petroleum diesel or kerosene (very same as # 1 diesel) you're still using fossilfuel-- cleaner than a lot of, however still not clean enough, numerous would state. Still, for every gallon of

vegetable oil you use, that's one gallon of fossil-fuel conserved, and that much less climate-changing carbon in the atmosphere.

People use numerous mixes, ranging from 10% vegetable oil and 90% petro-diesel to 90% grease and 10% petro-diesel. Some people just utilize it that way, launch and go, without pre-heating it (which makes veg-oil much thinner), and even use pure grease without pre-heating it, which would make it much thinner.

You might get away with it with an older Mercedes 5-cylinder IDI diesel, which is an extremely difficult and tolerant motor-- it won't like it however you probably won't kill it. Otherwise, it's not smart.

To do it correctly you'll require what amounts to an SVO system with fuel pre-heating anyhow, ideally using pure petro-diesel or biodiesel for starts and stops. (See next.) In which case there's no need for the mixes.

Blends with different solvents and/or with unleaded gasoline are "speculative at finest", little or absolutely nothing is understood about their impacts on the combustion characteristics of the fuel or their long-lasting effects on the engine.

Higher viscosity is not the only issue with utilizing vegetable oil as fuel. Veg-oil has different chemical homes and combustion attributes from the petroleum diesel fuel for which diesel engines and their fuel systems are developed.

Diesel engines are state-of-the-art makers with really accurate fuel requirements, specifically the more contemporary, cleaner-burning diesels (see The TDI-SVO controversy).

They're hard however they'll just take so much abuse. There's no guarantee of it, but using a mix of up to 20% veg-oil of excellent quality is stated to be safe enough for older diesels, especially in summer season.

Otherwise utilizing veg-oil fuel requires either a professional SVO solution or biodiesel. Mixes and blends are usually a poor compromise. But blends do have a benefit in winter.

Similar to biodiesel, some kerosene or winterised petro-diesel fuel combined with straight grease reduces the temperature at which it begins to gel. (See Using biodiesel in winter) More about fuel mixing and blends.