Anybody can make biodiesel. It's simple, 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-- better for the environment and better for health.
If you make it from used cooking oil it's not only cheap but you'll be recycling a bothersome waste product. Best of all is the GREAT feeling of freedom, self-reliance and empowerment it will offer you. Here's how to do it-- whatever you need to know.
Straight grease fuel (SVO) systems can be a clean, effective and economical alternative. Unlike biodiesel, with SVO you need to modify 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 combination. Just start up and go, stop and turn off, like any other car. Journey to Forever's Toyota TownAce van uses an Elsbett single-tank system. More
There are likewise two-tank SVO systems which pre-heat the oil to make it thinner. You need 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 grease systems in my blog.
3. Biodiesel or SVO?
Biodiesel has some clear advantages over SVO: it operates in any diesel, without any conversion or adjustments to the engine or the fuel system-- just put it in and go. It likewise has better cold-weather properties than SVO (however not as excellent as petro-diesel-- see Using biodiesel in winter season). Unlike SVO,
it's backed by numerous long-lasting tests in many countries, consisting of millions of miles on the road.
Biodiesel is a tidy, safe, ready-to-use, alternative fuel, whereas it's reasonable to state that many SVO systems are still speculative and development.
On the other hand, biodiesel can be more pricey, 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 first.
But the large 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 been doing it for several years.
Anyway you need to process SVO too, specifically WVO (waste grease, utilized, cooked), which lots of people with SVO systems utilize since it's cheap or complimentary for the taking. With WVO food particles and impurities and water should be gotten rid of, and it probably must be deacidified too. Biodieselers say, "If I'm going to have to do all that I may too make biodiesel instead." But SVO types scoff at that-- it's much less processing than making biodiesel, they say. To each his own.
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Make your own Biodiesel Part 2
Randy Keck edited this page 5 months ago