Anybody can make biodiesel. It's simple, you can make it in your kitchen area-- and it's BETTER than the petro-diesel fuel the huge oil companies 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 better for health.

If you make it from oil it's not just cheap however you'll be recycling a troublesome waste product. Most importantly is the GREAT sensation of flexibility, independence and empowerment it will offer you. Here's how to do it-- whatever you need to understand.

Straight vegetable oil fuel (SVO) systems can be a tidy, reliable and affordable choice. Unlike biodiesel, with SVO you need to customize the engine. The finest way 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 instance you can use petro-diesel, biodiesel or SVO, in any mix. Just launch and go, stop and turn off, like any other car. 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 regular petroleum diesel or biodiesel in one tank and after that switch 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 details on straight vegetable oil systems in my blog.

3. Biodiesel or SVO?

Biodiesel has some clear advantages over SVO: it works in any diesel, with no conversion or adjustments to the engine or the fuel system-- just put it in and go. It also has 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 numerous long-term tests in lots of nations, including countless miles on the roadway.

Biodiesel is a clean, safe, ready-to-use, alternative fuel, whereas it's fair to state that many SVO systems are still speculative and require more 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 on where you live). And unlike SVO, it has actually to be processed first.

But the big and rapidly growing worldwide band of homebrewers do not mind-- they make a supply weekly or when a month and quickly get used to it. Many have been doing it for many years.

Anyway you have to process SVO too, especially WVO (waste grease, utilized, cooked), which many individuals with SVO systems use since it's low-cost or totally free for the taking. With WVO food particles and pollutants and water should be gotten rid of, and it probably must be deacidified too. Biodieselers state, "If I'm going to need 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.