Anybody can make biodiesel. It's simple, 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-- 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 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, effective and economical option. 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, as well as fuel heating.
With the German Elsbett single-tank SVO system for instance you can use petro-diesel, biodiesel or SVO, in any combination. Just launch and go, stop and change off, like any other vehicle. 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 have to begin the engine on common 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. or SVO?
Biodiesel has some clear advantages over SVO: it works in any diesel, without any conversion or modifications to the engine or the fuel system-- just put it in and go. It likewise has much better cold-weather properties than SVO (however not as good as petro-diesel-- see Using biodiesel in winter). Unlike SVO,
it's backed by lots of long-lasting tests in lots of nations, consisting of countless miles on the road.
Biodiesel is a tidy, safe, ready-to-use, alternative fuel, whereas it's reasonable to state that lots of SVO systems are still experimental and require further advancement.
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 upon where you live). And unlike SVO, it needs to be processed initially.
But the large and quickly growing worldwide band of homebrewers don't mind-- they make a supply each week or once a month and soon get used to it. Many have been doing it for several years.
Anyway you need to process SVO too, particularly WVO (waste veggie oil, utilized, cooked), which lots of people with SVO systems use since it's inexpensive or totally free for the taking. With WVO food particles and impurities and water should be eliminated, and it probably must be deacidified too. Biodieselers say, "If I'm going to have to do all that I may as well make biodiesel rather." But SVO types belittle 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
Colin Chaney edited this page 2025-01-11 11:22:25 -05:00