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 business offer you. Your diesel motor will run much better and last longer on your home-made fuel, and it's much cleaner-- better for the environment and better for health.

If you make it from used cooking oil it's not just cheap but you'll be recycling a frustrating waste item. Best of all is the GREAT feeling of freedom, independence and empowerment it will provide you. Here's how to do it-- everything you need to understand.

Straight veggie oil fuel (SVO) systems can be a clean, effective and cost-effective choice. Unlike biodiesel, with SVO you need 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, as well as fuel heating.

With the German Elsbett single-tank SVO system for example you can use petro-diesel, biodiesel or SVO, in any mix. Just start up and go, stop and turn 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 have to begin the engine on ordinary 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 change back to petro- or biodiesel before you stop the engine, or you'll coke up the injectors.

More 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 likewise has better cold-weather homes than SVO (but not as excellent as petro-diesel-- see Using biodiesel in winter). Unlike SVO,

it's backed by many long-term tests in numerous countries, consisting of millions of miles on the road.

Biodiesel is a tidy, safe, ready-to-use, alternative fuel, whereas it's reasonable to state that lots of SVO systems are still speculative and require more advancement.

On the other hand, biodiesel can be more pricey, depending how much you make, what you make it from and whether you're comparing it with brand-new oil or utilized 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 do not mind-- they make a supply every week or when a month and soon get utilized to it. Many have actually been doing it for years.

Anyway you have to process SVO too, specifically WVO (waste grease, used, cooked), which numerous individuals with SVO systems utilize due to the fact that it's inexpensive or totally free for the taking. With WVO food particles and impurities and water should be removed, and it probably needs to be deacidified too. Biodieselers say, "If I'm going to have to do all that I might also make biodiesel instead." But SVO types scoff at that-- it's much less processing than making biodiesel, they say. To each his own.