Anybody can make biodiesel. It's easy, you can make it in your kitchen 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-- better for the environment and better for health.

If you make it from used cooking oil it's not just cheap however you'll be recycling a bothersome waste product. Best of all is the GREAT feeling of freedom, self-reliance and empowerment it will give you. Here's how to do it-- everything you require to know.

Straight vegetable oil fuel (SVO) systems can be a clean, reliable and cost-effective option. Unlike biodiesel, with SVO you have to modify the engine. The very best way is to fit a professional 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 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 likewise two-tank SVO systems which pre-heat the oil to make it thinner. You have to start 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 switch back to petro- or biodiesel before you stop the engine, or you'll coke up the injectors.

More information on straight grease systems in my blog.

3. Biodiesel or SVO?

Biodiesel has some clear benefits over SVO: it works in any diesel, without any conversion or 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). Unlike SVO,

it's backed by numerous long-term tests in numerous countries, including countless miles on the road.

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

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 new oil or utilized oil (and depending on where you live). And unlike SVO, it has actually to be processed initially.

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

Anyway you have to process SVO too, specifically WVO (waste grease, used, prepared), which lots of people with SVO systems utilize because it's inexpensive or totally free for the taking. With WVO food particles and pollutants and water must be eliminated, and it most likely needs to be deacidified too. Biodieselers state, "If I'm going to have to do all that I might also make biodiesel rather." But SVO types discount that-- it's much less processing than making biodiesel, they say. To each his own.