Anybody can make biodiesel. It’s simple, you can make it in your cooking area-- and it’s BETTER than the petro-diesel fuel the huge oil business offer 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 utilized cooking oil it’s not just inexpensive but you’ll be recycling a frustrating waste product. Most importantly is the GREAT sensation of flexibility, independence and empowerment it will provide you. Here’s how to do it-- everything you require to know.

Straight vegetable oil fuel (SVO) systems can be a tidy, effective and affordable alternative. Unlike biodiesel, with SVO you have to customize the engine. The finest 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 start up and go, stop and change off, like any other vehicle. 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 start the engine on common petroleum diesel or biodiesel in one tank and after that 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.

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 likewise has much better cold-weather properties than SVO (but not as good as see Using biodiesel in winter). Unlike SVO,

it’s backed by numerous long-term tests in numerous nations, including millions of miles on the roadway.

Biodiesel is a clean, safe, ready-to-use, alternative fuel, whereas it’s reasonable to say that lots of SVO systems are still speculative and need more development.

On the other hand, biodiesel can be more expensive, depending how much you make, what you make it from and whether you’re comparing it with brand-new oil or used oil (and depending upon where you live). And unlike SVO, it needs to be processed initially.

But the large and rapidly growing around the world band of homebrewers do not mind-- they make a supply weekly or when a month and quickly get used to it. Many have been doing it for several years.

Anyway you have to process SVO too, especially WVO (waste grease, utilized, prepared), which many individuals with SVO systems utilize due to the fact that it’s cheap or free for the taking. With WVO food particles and pollutants and water need to be gotten rid of, and it probably must be deacidified too. Biodieselers say, “If I’m going to have 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 say. To each his own.