Anybody can make biodiesel. It's easy, you can make it in your kitchen-- and it's BETTER than the petro-diesel fuel the huge 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 better for health.

If you make it from utilized cooking oil it's not only cheap however you'll be recycling a frustrating waste item. Best of all is the GREAT sensation of freedom, independence and empowerment it will offer you. Here's how to do it-- everything you need to understand.

Straight grease fuel (SVO) systems can be a tidy, reliable and economical option. Unlike biodiesel, with SVO you have to customize the engine. The finest 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 utilize petro-diesel, biodiesel or SVO, in any mix. Just launch and go, stop and turn off, like any other vehicle. 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 have to start the engine on regular petroleum diesel or biodiesel in one tank and then 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 details on straight grease systems in my blog site.

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-- just put it in and go. It also has much better cold-weather properties than SVO (however not as great as petro-diesel-- see Using biodiesel in winter season). Unlike SVO,

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

Biodiesel is a clean, safe, ready-to-use, alternative fuel, whereas it's fair to state that numerous SVO systems are still experimental and require additional 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 upon where you live). And unlike SVO, it needs to be processed first.

But the big and rapidly growing around the world band of homebrewers don't mind-- they make a supply weekly or once a month and quickly get used to it. Many have been doing it for years.

Anyway you have to process SVO too, particularly WVO (waste vegetable oil, used, prepared), which many individuals with SVO systems utilize because it's low-cost or free for the taking. With WVO food particles and pollutants and water must be eliminated, and it probably must 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 discount that-- it's much less processing than making biodiesel, they state. To each his own.