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 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 inexpensive but you'll be recycling a frustrating waste product. Most importantly is the GREAT sensation of freedom, independence and empowerment it will offer you. Here's how to do it-- everything you require to know.

Straight veggie oil fuel (SVO) systems can be a clean, effective and affordable alternative. Unlike biodiesel, with SVO you have to customize the engine. The 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 begin up and go, stop and change off, like any other cars and truck. 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 . You have to start the engine on normal petroleum diesel or biodiesel in one tank and after that switch 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 info on straight vegetable oil 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 adjustments to the engine or the fuel system-- simply put it in and go. It also has better cold-weather residential or commercial properties than SVO (but not as excellent as petro-diesel-- see Using biodiesel in winter). Unlike SVO,

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

Biodiesel is a clean, safe, ready-to-use, alternative fuel, whereas it's fair to say that numerous SVO systems are still experimental and require further 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 brand-new oil or used oil (and depending on where you live). And unlike SVO, it has actually to be processed initially.

But the big and rapidly growing worldwide band of homebrewers do not mind-- they make a supply every week or once a month and soon get utilized to it. Many have been doing it for many years.

Anyway you need to process SVO too, specifically WVO (waste grease, used, prepared), which lots of people with SVO systems use due to the fact that it's low-cost or totally free for the taking. With WVO food particles and impurities and water should be eliminated, and it probably should be deacidified too. Biodieselers say, "If I'm going to need to do all that I might also make biodiesel rather." But SVO types scoff at that-- it's much less processing than making biodiesel, they say. To each his own.