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 huge 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 however you'll be recycling a frustrating waste item. Most importantly is the GREAT sensation of freedom, independence and empowerment it will provide you. Here's how to do it-- everything you need to know.

Straight grease fuel (SVO) systems can be a clean, reliable and cost-effective option. Unlike biodiesel, with SVO you have to customize the engine. The best method 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 example you can utilize petro-diesel, biodiesel or SVO, in any mix. Just start up and go, stop and turn off, like any other automobile. 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 have to begin the engine on normal 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 information on straight veggie oil systems in my blog site.

3. Biodiesel or SVO?

Biodiesel has some clear advantages over SVO: it operates in any diesel, with no conversion or modifications to the engine or the fuel system-- just put it in and go. It also has better cold-weather homes than SVO (but not as excellent as petro-diesel-- see Using biodiesel in winter). Unlike SVO,

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

Biodiesel is a clean, safe, ready-to-use, alternative fuel, whereas it's fair to say that numerous SVO systems are still speculative and require more advancement.

On the other hand, biodiesel can be more costly, depending just 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 to be processed initially.

But the big 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 actually been doing it for several years.

Anyway you have to process SVO too, specifically WVO (waste vegetable oil, used, prepared), which many individuals with SVO systems use due to the fact that it's cheap or free for the taking. With WVO food particles and pollutants and water need to be removed, and it most likely should be deacidified too. Biodieselers state, "If I'm going to need to do all that I might as well make biodiesel rather." But SVO types belittle that-- it's much less processing than making biodiesel, they say. To each his own.