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 business sell you. Your diesel motor will run better and last longer on your home-made fuel, and it's much cleaner-- much better for the environment and much 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. Best of all is the GREAT sensation of liberty, self-reliance and empowerment it will offer you. Here's how to do it-- everything you need to know.

Straight grease fuel (SVO) systems can be a tidy, reliable and cost-effective option. Unlike biodiesel, with SVO you have to modify the engine. The best way 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 instance you can utilize petro-diesel, biodiesel or SVO, in any combination. Just launch and go, stop and switch 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 regular petroleum diesel or biodiesel in one tank and after that change 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 details on straight vegetable oil systems in my blog site.

3. Biodiesel or SVO?

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

it's backed by many long-term tests in lots of countries, including countless miles on the roadway.

Biodiesel is a tidy, safe, ready-to-use, alternative fuel, whereas it's fair to state that lots of SVO systems are still experimental and need further 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 new oil or used oil (and depending on where you live). And unlike SVO, it needs to be processed initially.

But the large and rapidly growing worldwide band of homebrewers don't mind-- they make a supply every week or as soon as a month and soon get utilized to it. Many have been doing it for years.

Anyway you need to process SVO too, especially WVO (waste vegetable oil, used, prepared), which many individuals with SVO systems utilize because it's cheap or free for the taking. With WVO food particles and impurities and water need to be gotten rid of, and it most likely must be deacidified too. Biodieselers say, "If I'm going to have to do all that I might also make biodiesel rather." But SVO types belittle that-- it's much less processing than making biodiesel, they state. To each his own.