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 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 only low-cost but you'll be recycling a troublesome waste product. Best of all is the GREAT sensation of flexibility, independence and empowerment it will offer you. Here's how to do it-- everything you require to understand.

Straight grease fuel (SVO) systems can be a clean, effective and economical alternative. Unlike biodiesel, with SVO you need to customize the engine. The finest way is to fit an expert singletank SVO system with replacement injectors and glowplugs optimised for veg-oil, along with fuel heating.

With the German Elsbett single-tank SVO system for example you can use petro-diesel, biodiesel or SVO, in any combination. Just launch and go, stop and turn 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 normal petroleum diesel or biodiesel in one tank and then change to SVO in the other tank when the is hot enough, and change back to petro- or biodiesel before you stop the engine, or you'll coke up the injectors.

More information on straight grease systems in my blog.

3. Biodiesel or SVO?

Biodiesel has some clear benefits over SVO: it works in any diesel, with no conversion or adjustments to the engine or the fuel system-- simply put it in and go. It likewise has much better cold-weather homes than SVO (however not as good as petro-diesel-- see Using biodiesel in winter season). Unlike SVO,

it's backed by many long-lasting tests in many countries, including millions of miles on the road.

Biodiesel is a clean, safe, ready-to-use, alternative fuel, whereas it's fair to say that lots of SVO systems are still speculative and need additional development.

On the other hand, biodiesel can be more expensive, 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 has to be processed first.

But the big and rapidly growing around the world band of homebrewers do not mind-- they make a supply every week or when a month and quickly get utilized to it. Many have actually been doing it for years.

Anyway you need to process SVO too, especially WVO (waste vegetable oil, used, cooked), which many individuals with SVO systems use since it's low-cost or complimentary for the taking. With WVO food particles and pollutants and water must be eliminated, and it most likely must be deacidified too. Biodieselers state, "If I'm going to need to do all that I might too make biodiesel instead." But SVO types belittle that-- it's much less processing than making biodiesel, they state. To each his own.