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 offer you. Your diesel motor will run much 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 only low-cost but you'll be recycling a problematic waste item. Best of all is the GREAT sensation of flexibility, self-reliance and empowerment it will provide you. Here's how to do it-- whatever you need to know.
Straight vegetable oil fuel (SVO) systems can be a clean, reliable and cost-effective option. Unlike biodiesel, with SVO you have to customize the engine. The best way is to fit a professional 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 utilize petro-diesel, biodiesel or SVO, in any mix. Just launch 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 likewise two-tank SVO systems which pre-heat the oil to make it thinner. You have to begin 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 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 modifications 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 good as petro-diesel-- see Using biodiesel in winter). Unlike SVO,
it's backed by lots of long-term tests in many countries, consisting of 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 development.
On the other hand, biodiesel can be more expensive, depending just how much you make, what you make it from and whether you're comparing it with new oil or used oil (and depending on where you live). And unlike SVO, it has to be processed initially.
But the large and rapidly growing around the world band of homebrewers do not mind-- they make a supply every week or as soon as a month and quickly get used to it. Many have actually been doing it for years.
Anyway you have to process SVO too, especially WVO (waste grease, used, prepared), which many individuals with SVO systems use 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 needs to be deacidified too. Biodieselers state, "If I'm going to have to do all that I may too make biodiesel instead." But SVO types discount that-- it's much less processing than making biodiesel, they say. To each his own.
