Anybody can make biodiesel. It's simple, you can make it in your cooking area-- and it's BETTER than the petro-diesel fuel the huge oil companies offer you. Your diesel motor will run better and last longer on your home-made fuel, and it's much cleaner-- much better for the environment and much better for health.

If you make it from used cooking oil it's not only cheap but you'll be recycling a frustrating waste item. Best of all is the GREAT sensation of flexibility, independence and empowerment it will offer you. Here's how to do it-- whatever you require to know.

Straight vegetable oil fuel (SVO) systems can be a clean, reliable and cost-effective choice. 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, in addition to fuel heating.

With the German Elsbett single-tank SVO system for instance you can utilize petro-diesel, biodiesel or SVO, in any mix. Just start up and go, stop and switch off, like any other automobile. 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 after that switch 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 vegetable oil systems in my blog site.

3. Biodiesel or SVO?

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

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

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 need additional 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 on where you live). And unlike SVO, it has actually to be processed initially.

But the large and rapidly growing worldwide band of homebrewers do not mind-- they make a supply every week or once a month and soon get utilized to it. Many have been doing it for years.

Anyway you have to process SVO too, particularly WVO (waste grease, used, prepared), which lots of people with SVO systems utilize because it's low-cost or complimentary for the taking. With WVO food particles and impurities and water need to be gotten rid of, and it most likely should be deacidified too. Biodieselers state, "If I'm going to have to do all that I might also make biodiesel instead." But SVO types belittle that-- it's much less processing than making biodiesel, they state. To each his own.