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 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 much better for health.

If you make it from used cooking oil it's not just low-cost but you'll be recycling a problematic waste product. Best of all is the GREAT feeling of liberty, self-reliance and empowerment it will offer you. Here's how to do it-- everything you need to understand.

Straight grease fuel (SVO) systems can be a clean, effective and economical option. Unlike biodiesel, with SVO you have to customize the engine. The very best 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 example you can utilize petro-diesel, biodiesel or SVO, in any combination. Just launch and go, stop and switch off, like any other automobile. 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 need to start the engine on regular 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 change back to petro- or biodiesel before you stop the engine, or you'll coke up the injectors.

More details on straight veggie oil systems in my blog site.

3. Biodiesel or SVO?

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

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

Biodiesel is a clean, safe, ready-to-use, alternative fuel, whereas it's reasonable to state that many 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 new oil or used 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 do not mind-- they make a supply weekly or as soon as a month and soon get utilized to it. Many have been doing it for years.

Anyway you have to process SVO too, particularly WVO (waste grease, used, prepared), which many individuals with SVO systems use due to the fact that it's inexpensive or complimentary for the taking. With WVO food particles and impurities and water need to be removed, and it probably needs to be deacidified too. Biodieselers say, "If I'm going to have to do all that I may too make biodiesel rather." But SVO types discount that-- it's much less processing than making biodiesel, they say. To each his own.