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 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 better for health.

If you make it from used cooking oil it's not only low-cost however you'll be recycling a bothersome waste item. Most importantly is the GREAT sensation of freedom, independence and empowerment it will give you. Here's how to do it-- everything you require to know.

Straight grease fuel (SVO) systems can be a clean, efficient and cost-effective choice. Unlike biodiesel, with SVO you need to customize the engine. The best way is to fit a professional singletank SVO system with replacement injectors and glowplugs optimised for veg-oil, as well as fuel heating.

With the German Elsbett single-tank SVO system for instance you can use petro-diesel, biodiesel or SVO, in any combination. Just begin 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 need to begin the engine on ordinary petroleum diesel or biodiesel in one tank and then change 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 details on straight grease systems in my blog.

3. Biodiesel or SVO?

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

it's backed by many long-lasting tests in lots of nations, consisting of of miles on the road.

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

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 used oil (and depending on where you live). And unlike SVO, it has to be processed first.

But the big and rapidly growing around the world band of homebrewers don't mind-- they make a supply every week or as soon as a month and soon get used to it. Many have actually been doing it for several years.

Anyway you need to process SVO too, especially WVO (waste veggie oil, utilized, prepared), which lots of people with SVO systems use because it's low-cost or totally free for the taking. With WVO food particles and impurities and water should be eliminated, and it most likely needs to be deacidified too. Biodieselers say, "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.