Anybody can make biodiesel. It's simple, you can make it in your kitchen-- and it's BETTER than the petro-diesel fuel the big oil business offer 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 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. Best of all is the GREAT sensation of flexibility, independence and it will offer you. Here's how to do it-- whatever you need to understand.

Straight grease fuel (SVO) systems can be a tidy, effective and economical option. Unlike biodiesel, with SVO you need to modify the engine. The very best method is to fit an expert 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 begin up and go, stop and turn off, like any other automobile. 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 have to start the engine on normal petroleum 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 details on straight grease systems in my blog.

3. Biodiesel 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 likewise has better cold-weather properties than SVO (however not as excellent as petro-diesel-- see Using biodiesel in winter). Unlike SVO,

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

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

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 used oil (and depending on 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 every week or as soon as a month and soon get utilized to it. Many have been doing it for many years.

Anyway you need to process SVO too, particularly WVO (waste grease, used, prepared), which many people with SVO systems utilize because it's low-cost or complimentary for the taking. With WVO food particles and pollutants and water must be removed, and it probably needs to be deacidified too. Biodieselers state, "If I'm going to need to do all that I might too make biodiesel instead." But SVO types belittle that-- it's much less processing than making biodiesel, they say. To each his own.