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 big oil companies 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 better for health.

If you make it from utilized cooking oil it's not only low-cost but you'll be recycling a troublesome waste product. Most importantly is the GREAT feeling of flexibility, self-reliance and empowerment it will offer you. Here's how to do it-- whatever you need to know.

Straight grease fuel (SVO) systems can be a tidy, reliable and affordable option. Unlike biodiesel, with SVO you have to modify the engine. The finest 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 mix. Just launch and go, stop and turn 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 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 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.

3. Biodiesel or SVO?

Biodiesel has some clear advantages over SVO: it works in any diesel, with no conversion or modifications to the engine or the fuel system-- simply put it in and go. It also has much better cold-weather 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 lots of nations, consisting of millions of miles on the road.

Biodiesel is a clean, safe, ready-to-use, alternative fuel, whereas it's fair to state that many SVO systems are still experimental and require additional development.

On the other hand, biodiesel can be more expensive, 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 on where you live). And unlike SVO, it has actually to be processed initially.

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

Anyway you have to process SVO too, specifically WVO (waste vegetable oil, utilized, prepared), which numerous people with SVO systems use because it's low-cost or complimentary for the taking. With particles and impurities and water need to be gotten rid of, and it probably must be deacidified too. Biodieselers state, "If I'm going to need to do all that I might too make biodiesel rather." But SVO types scoff at that-- it's much less processing than making biodiesel, they say. To each his own.