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 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 utilized cooking oil it's not only cheap however you'll be recycling a bothersome waste item. Best of all is the GREAT feeling of flexibility, self-reliance and empowerment it will provide you. Here's how to do it-- whatever you need to know.

Straight veggie (SVO) systems can be a tidy, effective and affordable alternative. Unlike biodiesel, with SVO you have to modify the engine. The very best way is to fit an expert singletank SVO system with replacement injectors and glowplugs optimised for veg-oil, along with fuel heating.

With the German Elsbett single-tank SVO system for circumstances you can utilize petro-diesel, biodiesel or SVO, in any mix. Just launch and go, stop and change off, like any other car. 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 start the engine on common 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 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 site.

3. Biodiesel or SVO?

Biodiesel has some clear advantages 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 better cold-weather residential or commercial properties than SVO (however not as great as petro-diesel-- see Using biodiesel in winter season). Unlike SVO,

it's backed by lots of long-lasting tests in many 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 more advancement.

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 new oil or used oil (and depending upon where you live). And unlike SVO, it needs to be processed first.

But the large and rapidly growing around the world band of homebrewers do not mind-- they make a supply every week or when a month and quickly get used to it. Many have been doing it for years.

Anyway you have to process SVO too, particularly WVO (waste vegetable oil, used, prepared), which many individuals with SVO systems use since it's low-cost or totally free for the taking. With WVO food particles and impurities and water should be eliminated, and it most likely should be deacidified too. Biodieselers state, "If I'm going to have 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.