Anybody can make biodiesel. It's simple, you can make it in your kitchen-- and it's BETTER than the petro-diesel fuel the huge 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 however you'll be recycling a problematic waste item. Best of all is the GREAT sensation of freedom, self-reliance and empowerment it will give you. Here's how to do it-- everything you need to understand.

Straight veggie oil fuel (SVO) systems can be a clean, efficient and affordable option. Unlike biodiesel, with SVO you have to modify the engine. The best method 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 example you can use petro-diesel, biodiesel or SVO, in any mix. Just start up and go, stop and change 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 pre-heat the oil to make it thinner. You have to begin the engine on common 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 info on straight veggie oil systems in my blog.

3. Biodiesel or SVO?

Biodiesel has some clear benefits over SVO: it works in any diesel, with no conversion or modifications 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 (however 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 countries, including millions of miles on the road.

Biodiesel is a clean, safe, ready-to-use, alternative fuel, whereas it's reasonable to state that lots of SVO systems are still experimental and require further advancement.

On the other hand, biodiesel can be more pricey, 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 to be processed initially.

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

Anyway you need to process SVO too, specifically WVO (waste veggie oil, utilized, cooked), which lots of people with SVO systems utilize due to the fact that it's low-cost or totally free for the taking. With WVO food particles and impurities and water need to be eliminated, and it most likely must be deacidified too. Biodieselers say, "If I'm going to have to do all that I may too make biodiesel instead." But SVO types discount that-- it's much less processing than making biodiesel, they state. To each his own.