Anybody can make biodiesel. It's easy, you can make it in your cooking area-- 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-- better for the environment and better for health.

If you make it from used cooking oil it's not only low-cost however you'll be recycling a frustrating waste item. Best of all is the GREAT sensation of liberty, independence and empowerment it will provide you. Here's how to do it-- whatever you require to know.

Straight vegetable oil fuel (SVO) systems can be a clean, effective and affordable option. Unlike biodiesel, with SVO you have to modify the engine. The finest method is to fit a professional 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 instance you can use petro-diesel, biodiesel or SVO, in any mix. Just start up and go, stop and turn 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 begin the engine on normal 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 details on straight veggie oil systems in my blog.

3. Biodiesel or SVO?

Biodiesel has some clear advantages over SVO: it operates in any diesel, without any conversion or modifications to the engine or the fuel system-- simply put it in and go. It also has better cold-weather homes than SVO (but not as good as petro-diesel-- see Using biodiesel in winter). Unlike SVO,

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

Biodiesel is a clean, safe, ready-to-use, alternative fuel, whereas it's fair to say that lots of SVO systems are still speculative and need additional advancement.

On the other hand, biodiesel can be more expensive, depending just 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 needs to be processed first.

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

Anyway you have to process SVO too, especially WVO (waste vegetable oil, used, cooked), which many individuals with SVO systems use since it's cheap or complimentary for the taking. With WVO food particles and impurities and water must be eliminated, 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 instead." But SVO types discount that-- it's much less processing than making biodiesel, they say. To each his own.