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 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 inexpensive however you'll be recycling a troublesome waste item. Most importantly is the GREAT feeling of freedom, independence and empowerment it will offer you. Here's how to do it-- everything you require to know.

Straight vegetable oil fuel (SVO) systems can be a tidy, reliable and economical alternative. Unlike biodiesel, with SVO you have to customize the engine. The best method is to fit a professional 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 example you can use petro-diesel, biodiesel or SVO, in any combination. Just start up and go, stop and switch 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 have to begin the engine on normal petroleum diesel or biodiesel in one tank and then 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 info on straight veggie oil systems in my blog.

3. Biodiesel or SVO?

Biodiesel has some clear benefits over SVO: it operates in any diesel, with no conversion or adjustments to the engine or the fuel system-- just put it in and go. It also has better cold-weather properties than SVO (but not as excellent as petro-diesel-- see Using biodiesel in winter season). Unlike SVO,

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

Biodiesel is a tidy, safe, ready-to-use, alternative fuel, whereas it's reasonable to say that lots of 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 new oil or utilized oil (and depending upon where you live). And unlike SVO, it has to be processed initially.

But the big and quickly growing worldwide band of homebrewers don't mind-- they make a supply weekly or once a month and soon get utilized to it. Many have been doing it for several years.

Anyway you have to process SVO too, specifically WVO (waste grease, utilized, cooked), which many people with SVO systems use because it's cheap or complimentary for the taking. With WVO food particles and impurities and water must be eliminated, and it probably must 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 discount that-- it's much less processing than making biodiesel, they say. To each his own.