Anybody can make biodiesel. It's easy, you can make it in your kitchen-- and it's BETTER than the petro-diesel fuel the huge oil companies sell you. Your diesel motor will run much better and last longer on your home-made fuel, and it's much cleaner-- much 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 frustrating waste item. Most importantly is the GREAT sensation of flexibility, independence and empowerment it will offer you. Here's how to do it-- everything you require to know.

Straight veggie oil fuel (SVO) systems can be a clean, efficient and affordable option. Unlike biodiesel, with SVO you have to modify the engine. The very best method 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 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 need to start the engine on regular 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 details on straight vegetable oil systems in my blog.

3. Biodiesel or SVO?

Biodiesel has some clear advantages over SVO: it works in any diesel, without any conversion or adjustments to the engine or the fuel system-- simply put it in and go. It also has better cold-weather properties than SVO (however not as good as petro-diesel-- see Using biodiesel in winter). Unlike SVO,

it's backed by many long-lasting tests in lots of nations, including millions of miles on the road.

Biodiesel is a clean, safe, ready-to-use, alternative fuel, whereas it's fair to say that many SVO systems are still speculative and require further 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 to be processed first.

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

Anyway you need to process SVO too, especially WVO (waste vegetable oil, utilized, cooked), which lots of people with SVO systems utilize since it's low-cost or complimentary for the taking. With WVO food particles and impurities and water should be gotten rid of, and it probably needs to be deacidified too. Biodieselers state, "If I'm going to have to do all that I might too make biodiesel rather." But SVO types discount that-- it's much less processing than making biodiesel, they state. To each his own.