Anybody can make biodiesel. It's easy, you can make it in your kitchen-- and it's BETTER than the petro-diesel fuel the big oil companies sell you. Your diesel motor will run much 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 utilized cooking oil it's not only cheap but you'll be recycling a frustrating waste product. Best of all is the GREAT sensation of flexibility, independence and empowerment it will give you. Here's how to do it-- everything you require to know.

Straight grease fuel (SVO) systems can be a tidy, effective and economical choice. 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, as well as fuel heating.

With the German Elsbett single-tank SVO system for circumstances 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 uses an Elsbett single-tank system. More

There are likewise two-tank SVO systems which the oil to make it thinner. You have to start the engine on ordinary 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 switch 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 site.

3. Biodiesel or SVO?

Biodiesel has some clear benefits over SVO: it operates in any diesel, without any conversion or modifications to the engine or the fuel system-- just put it in and go. It likewise has 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 many long-term tests in lots of nations, including millions of miles on the road.

Biodiesel is a tidy, safe, ready-to-use, alternative fuel, whereas it's reasonable to state that numerous SVO systems are still experimental 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 utilized oil (and depending on where you live). And unlike SVO, it has to be processed initially.

But the large and quickly growing worldwide band of homebrewers do not mind-- they make a supply weekly or once a month and quickly get utilized to it. Many have been doing it for years.

Anyway you need to process SVO too, particularly WVO (waste veggie oil, utilized, prepared), which lots of people with SVO systems use since it's inexpensive or totally free for the taking. With WVO food particles and impurities and water should be removed, and it most likely ought to be deacidified too. Biodieselers state, "If I'm going to need to do all that I may also make biodiesel rather." But SVO types discount that-- it's much less processing than making biodiesel, they state. To each his own.