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

If you make it from utilized cooking oil it's not only low-cost but you'll be recycling a problematic waste item. Best of all is the GREAT feeling of flexibility, independence and empowerment it will give you. Here's how to do it-- whatever you require to know.

Straight veggie oil fuel (SVO) systems can be a tidy, effective and economical option. 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, as well as fuel .

With the German Elsbett single-tank SVO system for example you can utilize petro-diesel, biodiesel or SVO, in any mix. Just begin up and go, stop and change off, like any other cars and truck. 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 common 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 info on straight grease systems in my blog.

3. Biodiesel or SVO?

Biodiesel has some clear benefits over SVO: it operates in any diesel, without any conversion or adjustments to the engine or the fuel system-- just put it in and go. It also has better cold-weather residential or commercial properties than SVO (but not as excellent as petro-diesel-- see Using biodiesel in winter). Unlike SVO,

it's backed by many long-lasting tests in numerous nations, consisting of countless miles on the roadway.

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

On the other hand, biodiesel can be more expensive, 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 large and rapidly growing around the world band of homebrewers don't mind-- they make a supply weekly or once a month and soon get used to it. Many have actually been doing it for many years.

Anyway you have to process SVO too, particularly WVO (waste grease, utilized, cooked), which many individuals with SVO systems use since it's cheap or free for the taking. With WVO food particles and pollutants and water must be eliminated, and it most likely needs to be deacidified too. Biodieselers state, "If I'm going to need to do all that I may too make biodiesel instead." But SVO types scoff at that-- it's much less processing than making biodiesel, they state. To each his own.