Anybody can make biodiesel. It's simple, you can make it in your kitchen-- and it's BETTER than the petro-diesel fuel the huge oil business 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 used cooking oil it's not only inexpensive however you'll be recycling a bothersome waste product. Most importantly is the GREAT sensation of freedom, self-reliance and empowerment it will offer you. Here's how to do it-- everything you need to know.

Straight vegetable oil fuel (SVO) systems can be a clean, reliable and cost-effective alternative. Unlike biodiesel, with SVO you need to modify the engine. The very best way is to fit a professional singletank SVO system with replacement injectors and glowplugs optimised for veg-oil, along with fuel heating.

With the German Elsbett single-tank SVO system for instance you can utilize petro-diesel, biodiesel or SVO, in any mix. Just launch and go, stop and switch 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 need to begin the engine on regular 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 works in any diesel, with no conversion or modifications to the engine or the fuel system-- simply put it in and go. It likewise has better cold-weather properties than SVO (but not as great as petro-diesel-- see Using biodiesel in winter season). Unlike SVO,

it's backed by numerous long-lasting tests in numerous countries, consisting of millions of miles on the roadway.

Biodiesel is a tidy, safe, ready-to-use, alternative fuel, whereas it's fair to say that numerous SVO systems are still speculative and require further development.

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 upon where you live). And unlike SVO, it needs to be processed initially.

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

Anyway you have to process SVO too, particularly WVO (waste vegetable oil, used, cooked), which numerous people with SVO systems utilize since it's inexpensive or totally free for the taking. With WVO food particles and pollutants and water should be eliminated, and it probably must be deacidified too. Biodieselers state, "If I'm going to need to do all that I may too make biodiesel instead." But SVO types belittle that-- it's much less processing than making biodiesel, they say. To each his own.