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 much better and last longer on your home-made fuel, and it’s much cleaner-- 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 troublesome waste item. Most importantly is the GREAT sensation of freedom, independence and empowerment it will offer you. Here’s how to do it-- everything you need to understand.

Straight veggie oil fuel (SVO) systems can be a clean, effective and affordable alternative. 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 example you can utilize petro-diesel, biodiesel or SVO, in any mix. Just begin up 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 pre-heat the oil to make it thinner. You need 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 change 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 operates in any diesel, without any conversion or adjustments to the engine or the fuel system-- simply put it in and go. It also has much better cold-weather residential or commercial properties than SVO (however not as good as petro-diesel-- see Using biodiesel in winter season). Unlike SVO,

it’s backed by many long-term tests in lots of countries, consisting of countless miles on the roadway.

Biodiesel is a tidy, safe, ready-to-use, alternative fuel, whereas it’s fair to say that numerous SVO systems are still experimental and need further advancement.

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 upon where you live). And unlike SVO, it needs to be processed initially.

But the big and quickly growing worldwide band of homebrewers do not mind-- they make a supply weekly or when a month and soon get used 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 use since it’s or totally free for the taking. With WVO food particles and impurities and water should be gotten rid of, and it most likely should be deacidified too. Biodieselers say, “If I’m going to have to do all that I might also make biodiesel instead.” But SVO types scoff at that-- it’s much less processing than making biodiesel, they say. To each his own.