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 big oil business sell you. Your diesel motor will run much 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 utilized cooking oil it's not just inexpensive however you'll be recycling a frustrating waste item. Most importantly is the GREAT sensation of flexibility, independence and empowerment it will provide you. Here's how to do it-- whatever you require to know.

Straight vegetable oil fuel (SVO) systems can be a tidy, reliable and economical alternative. Unlike biodiesel, with SVO you have to modify the engine. The finest method is to fit an expert 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 circumstances you can use petro-diesel, biodiesel or SVO, in any combination. Just launch and go, stop and turn off, like any other car. Journey to Forever's Toyota TownAce van uses an Elsbett single-tank system. More

There are also two-tank SVO systems which pre-heat the oil to make it thinner. You need to start the engine on diesel or biodiesel in one tank and then change 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 info on straight veggie oil systems in my blog.

3. Biodiesel or SVO?

Biodiesel has some clear advantages over SVO: it operates in any diesel, with no conversion or modifications to the engine or the fuel system-- just put it in and go. It also has better cold-weather residential or commercial properties than SVO (but not as great as petro-diesel-- see Using biodiesel in winter season). Unlike SVO,

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

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

On the other hand, biodiesel can be more costly, depending how much you make, what you make it from and whether you're comparing it with new oil or utilized oil (and depending upon where you live). And unlike SVO, it needs to be processed first.

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

Anyway you need to process SVO too, especially WVO (waste vegetable oil, utilized, cooked), which lots of people with SVO systems use since it's low-cost or complimentary for the taking. With WVO food particles and pollutants and water need to be eliminated, and it probably needs to 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 belittle that-- it's much less processing than making biodiesel, they say. To each his own.