There are at least 3 methods to run a diesel motor on biofuel using veggie oils, animal fats or both. All 3 are used with both fresh and pre-owned oils.

1. Use the oil just as it is-- normally called SVO fuel (straight veggie oil);

2. Mix it with kerosene (paraffin) or petroleum diesel fuel, or with biodiesel, or mix it with a solvent, or with fuel;

3. Convert it to biodiesel.

The very first two techniques sound easiest, but, as so typically in life, it's not rather that basic.

1. Mixing it

Grease is a lot more viscous (thicker) than either petro-diesel or biodiesel. The function of mixing it or blending it with other fuels is to lower the viscosity to make it thinner so that it streams more easily through the fuel system into the combustion chamber.

If you're blending veg-oil with petroleum diesel or kerosene (like # 1 diesel) you're still using fossilfuel-- cleaner than many, but still not tidy enough, lots of would say. Still, for each gallon of

vegetable oil you use, that's one gallon of fossil-fuel saved, which much less climate-changing carbon in the environment.

People use different blends, ranging from 10% veggie oil and 90% petro-diesel to 90% grease and 10% petro-diesel. Some people just utilize it that method, launch and go, without pre-heating it (that makes veg-oil much thinner), or perhaps use pure grease without pre-heating it, which would make it much thinner.

You might get away with it with an older Mercedes 5-cylinder IDI diesel, which is a really hard and tolerant motor-- it won't like it however you most likely won't eliminate it. Otherwise, it's not sensible.

To do it properly you'll require what amounts to an SVO system with fuel pre-heating anyhow, preferably utilizing pure petro-diesel or biodiesel for starts and stops. (See next.) In which case there's no requirement for the mixes.

Blends with various solvents and/or with unleaded gasoline are "speculative at finest", little or nothing is understood about their impacts on the combustion characteristics of the fuel or their long-lasting impacts on the engine.

Higher viscosity is not the only problem with utilizing grease as fuel. Veg-oil has different chemical homes and combustion qualities from the petroleum diesel fuel for which diesel engines and their fuel systems are designed.

Diesel motor are modern makers with extremely accurate fuel requirements, particularly the more contemporary, cleaner-burning diesels (see The TDI-SVO controversy).

They're tough however they'll only take a lot abuse. There's no warranty of it, however using a mix of up to 20% veg-oil of excellent quality is stated to be safe enough for older diesels, particularly in summertime.

Otherwise using veg-oil fuel requires either a professional SVO solution or . Mixes and blends are typically a bad compromise. But mixes do have a benefit in cold weather condition.

As with biodiesel, some kerosene or winterised petro-diesel fuel blended with straight vegetable oil decreases the temperature at which it starts to gel. (See Using biodiesel in winter season) More about fuel blending and blends.