Anybody can make biodiesel. It's easy, you can make it in your kitchen-- and it's BETTER than the petro-diesel fuel the big oil companies sell 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 but you'll be recycling a troublesome waste item. Most importantly is the GREAT feeling of flexibility, self-reliance and empowerment it will give you. Here's how to do it-- whatever you require to know.

Straight grease fuel (SVO) systems can be a clean, efficient and economical choice. Unlike biodiesel, with SVO you have to modify the engine. The 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 use petro-diesel, biodiesel or SVO, in any combination. Just start up and go, stop and turn off, like any other cars and truck. 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 common 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 information on straight veggie oil systems in my blog site.

3. 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-- simply put it in and go. It also has much 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 many nations, consisting of millions 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 speculative and need additional advancement.

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

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

Anyway you have to process SVO too, specifically WVO (waste vegetable oil, utilized, prepared), which numerous individuals with SVO systems utilize because it's cheap or totally free for the taking. With WVO food particles and impurities and water must be removed, and it most likely must be deacidified too. Biodieselers state, "If I'm going to need to do all that I might too make biodiesel rather." But SVO types belittle that-- it's much less processing than making biodiesel, they state. To each his own.