Anybody can make biodiesel. It's easy, you can make it in your kitchen area-- and it's BETTER than the petro-diesel fuel the big oil companies 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 used cooking oil it's not just cheap however you'll be recycling a troublesome waste item. Best of all is the GREAT sensation of flexibility, independence and empowerment it will offer you. Here's how to do it-- whatever you require to know.

Straight vegetable oil fuel (SVO) systems can be a tidy, efficient and cost-effective alternative. Unlike biodiesel, with SVO you need to modify the engine. The very best way 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 circumstances 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 also two-tank SVO systems which pre-heat the oil to make it thinner. You need to begin the engine on normal petroleum diesel or biodiesel in one tank and after that change to SVO in the other tank when the 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 benefits over SVO: it works in any diesel, without any conversion or adjustments 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 great as petro-diesel-- see Using biodiesel in winter season). Unlike SVO,

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

Biodiesel is a clean, safe, ready-to-use, alternative fuel, whereas it's fair to state that many SVO systems are still speculative and need further advancement.

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 new oil or utilized oil (and depending upon where you live). And unlike SVO, it needs to be processed initially.

But the large and rapidly growing worldwide band of homebrewers do not 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 several years.

Anyway you need to process SVO too, particularly WVO (waste grease, utilized, prepared), which many individuals with SVO systems utilize because it's cheap or free for the taking. With WVO food particles and impurities and water must be removed, and it probably ought to be deacidified too. Biodieselers state, "If I'm going to need to do all that I may too make biodiesel instead." But SVO types discount that-- it's much less processing than making biodiesel, they state. To each his own.