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 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 utilized cooking oil it's not just inexpensive but you'll be recycling a problematic 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 vegetable oil fuel (SVO) systems can be a clean, efficient and economical alternative. Unlike biodiesel, with SVO you have to customize the engine. The finest way is to fit a professional singletank SVO system with replacement injectors and glowplugs optimised for veg-oil, along with fuel heating.

With the German Elsbett single-tank SVO system for example you can utilize petro-diesel, biodiesel or SVO, in any combination. Just launch and go, stop and change off, like any other automobile. Journey to Forever's Toyota TownAce van utilizes 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 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 change 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 advantages 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 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 numerous nations, including millions of miles on the road.

Biodiesel is a clean, safe, ready-to-use, alternative fuel, whereas it's reasonable to say that numerous SVO systems are still speculative 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 utilized oil (and depending upon where you live). And unlike SVO, it needs to be processed first.

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

Anyway you need to process SVO too, particularly WVO (waste grease, utilized, prepared), which many individuals with SVO systems use since it's inexpensive or complimentary for the taking. With WVO food particles and impurities and water should be gotten rid of, and it probably ought to be deacidified too. Biodieselers state, "If I'm going to need to do all that I may as well make biodiesel instead." But SVO types belittle that-- it's much less processing than making biodiesel, they state. To each his own.