Anybody can make biodiesel. It's simple, 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 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 used cooking oil it's not only cheap but you'll be recycling a bothersome waste item. Most importantly is the GREAT feeling of freedom, independence and empowerment it will give you. Here's how to do it-- whatever you require to understand.
Straight vegetable oil fuel (SVO) systems can be a clean, efficient and cost-effective choice. Unlike biodiesel, with SVO you have to customize the engine. The very best way is to fit an expert 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 launch and go, stop and switch off, like any other automobile. 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 then 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 works in any diesel, with no conversion or adjustments to the engine or the fuel system-- simply put it in and go. It also has much 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-term tests in numerous nations, consisting of countless miles on the road.
Biodiesel is a clean, safe, ready-to-use, alternative fuel, whereas it's reasonable to state that many SVO systems are still experimental and need more development.
On the other hand, biodiesel can be more costly, depending how much you make, what you make it from and whether you're comparing it with brand-new oil or used oil (and depending upon where you live). And unlike SVO, it has actually to be processed initially.
But the big and rapidly growing worldwide band of homebrewers do not mind-- they make a supply every week or as soon as a month and quickly get utilized to it. Many have been doing it for years.
Anyway you need to process SVO too, especially WVO (waste veggie oil, used, prepared), which many individuals with SVO systems use since it's cheap or totally free for the taking. With WVO food particles and impurities and water need to be eliminated, and it probably must be deacidified too. Biodieselers say, "If I'm going to have to do all that I might as well make biodiesel instead." But SVO types scoff at that-- it's much less processing than making biodiesel, they say. To each his own.
