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

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

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 expert 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 circumstances you can use petro-diesel, biodiesel or SVO, in any combination. Just launch and go, stop and switch off, like any other car. 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 have to start the engine on ordinary 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 switch back to petro- or biodiesel before you stop the engine, or you'll coke up the injectors.

More info on straight grease systems in my blog.

3. Biodiesel or SVO?

Biodiesel has some clear benefits over SVO: it operates in any diesel, with no conversion or adjustments 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 lots of long-lasting tests in lots of countries, consisting of countless miles on the roadway.

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 more 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 upon where you live). And unlike SVO, it needs to be processed initially.

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

Anyway you have to process SVO too, specifically WVO (waste grease, utilized, prepared), which many individuals with SVO systems utilize due to the fact that it's low-cost or totally free for the taking. With WVO food particles and pollutants and water must be removed, and it most likely needs to be deacidified too. Biodieselers state, "If I'm going to have to do all that I may also make biodiesel instead." But SVO types scoff at that-- it's much less processing than making biodiesel, they state. To each his own.