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 big oil business 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 better for health.

If you make it from utilized cooking oil it's not just low-cost but you'll be recycling a bothersome waste product. Most importantly is the GREAT feeling of freedom, self-reliance and empowerment it will give you. Here's how to do it-- whatever you need to understand.

Straight grease fuel (SVO) systems can be a tidy, effective and affordable alternative. Unlike biodiesel, with SVO you need to modify the engine. The very best way is to fit an 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 utilize petro-diesel, biodiesel or SVO, in any combination. Just start 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 also two-tank SVO systems which pre-heat the oil to make it thinner. You need to start the engine on common 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 information on straight veggie oil systems in my blog.

3. Biodiesel or SVO?

Biodiesel has some clear benefits over SVO: it works 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 great as petro-diesel-- see Using biodiesel in winter). Unlike SVO,

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

Biodiesel is a tidy, safe, ready-to-use, alternative fuel, whereas it's fair to state that numerous SVO systems are still experimental and need more 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 new oil or used oil (and depending on where you live). And unlike SVO, it has actually to be processed first.

But the large and quickly growing around the world band of homebrewers do not mind-- they make a supply every week or when a month and quickly get utilized to it. Many have been doing it for years.

Anyway you have to process SVO too, particularly WVO (waste veggie oil, utilized, cooked), which lots of people with SVO systems use due to the fact that it's inexpensive or totally free for the taking. With WVO food particles and impurities and water should be gotten rid of, and it probably needs to be deacidified too. Biodieselers say, "If I'm going to have to do all that I might as well make biodiesel instead." But SVO types discount that-- it's much less processing than making biodiesel, they say. To each his own.