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 companies offer you. Your diesel motor will run better and last longer on your home-made fuel, and it's much better for the environment and better for health.

If you make it from used cooking oil it's not only inexpensive but you'll be recycling a frustrating waste product. Best of all is the GREAT feeling of flexibility, independence and empowerment it will offer you. Here's how to do it-- whatever you need to understand.

Straight grease fuel (SVO) systems can be a clean, effective and cost-effective choice. Unlike biodiesel, with SVO you need to customize the engine. The very best way 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 example you can use petro-diesel, biodiesel or SVO, in any combination. Just launch and go, stop and switch off, like any other vehicle. Journey to Forever's Toyota TownAce van utilizes 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 begin the engine on regular petroleum diesel or biodiesel in one tank and then 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 grease systems in my blog site.

3. Biodiesel or SVO?

Biodiesel has some clear advantages over SVO: it works in any diesel, without any 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 (however not as great as petro-diesel-- see Using biodiesel in winter). Unlike SVO,

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

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

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

But the large and quickly growing worldwide band of homebrewers don't mind-- they make a supply every week or when a month and soon get used to it. Many have actually been doing it for many years.

Anyway you have to process SVO too, specifically WVO (waste veggie oil, utilized, prepared), which many individuals with SVO systems use because it's low-cost or complimentary for the taking. With WVO food particles and impurities and water need to be gotten rid of, and it most likely needs to be deacidified too. Biodieselers say, "If I'm going to need to do all that I may too make biodiesel instead." But SVO types scoff at that-- it's much less processing than making biodiesel, they state. To each his own.