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 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 much better for health.

If you make it from utilized cooking oil it's not only cheap however you'll be recycling a frustrating waste product. 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.

oil fuel (SVO) systems can be a clean, effective and cost-effective alternative. Unlike biodiesel, with SVO you need to customize the engine. The best 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 example you can utilize petro-diesel, biodiesel or SVO, in any combination. Just begin up and go, stop and turn off, like any other cars and truck. 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 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 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 site.

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-- simply put it in and go. It likewise has much better cold-weather residential or commercial properties than SVO (but not as great as petro-diesel-- see Using biodiesel in winter). Unlike SVO,

it's backed by lots of long-term tests in many countries, consisting of millions of miles on the road.

Biodiesel is a tidy, safe, ready-to-use, alternative fuel, whereas it's fair to say that lots of SVO systems are still experimental and need more development.

On the other hand, biodiesel can be more pricey, 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 on where you live). And unlike SVO, it has actually to be processed initially.

But the large and quickly growing worldwide band of homebrewers don't mind-- they make a supply each week or when a month and soon get used to it. Many have been doing it for several years.

Anyway you need to process SVO too, especially WVO (waste vegetable oil, utilized, cooked), which many individuals with SVO systems utilize because it's inexpensive or totally free for the taking. With WVO food particles and pollutants and water must be removed, and it most likely must be deacidified too. Biodieselers say, "If I'm going to need to do all that I might also make biodiesel rather." But SVO types discount that-- it's much less processing than making biodiesel, they state. To each his own.