Anybody can make biodiesel. It's easy, you can make it in your kitchen area-- and it's BETTER than the petro-diesel fuel the huge oil business 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 used cooking oil it's not just low-cost but you'll be recycling a problematic waste item. Best of all is the GREAT sensation of flexibility, self-reliance and empowerment it will offer you. Here's how to do it-- whatever you require to understand.
Straight grease fuel (SVO) systems can be a tidy, efficient and cost-effective alternative. Unlike biodiesel, with SVO you have to customize the engine. The finest method 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 uses 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 start the engine on regular 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 grease systems in my blog site.
3. Biodiesel or SVO?
Biodiesel has some clear advantages over SVO: it operates in any diesel, with no conversion or modifications to the engine or the fuel system-- simply put it in and go. It also has 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-term tests in lots of countries, including millions of miles on the road.
Biodiesel is a clean, safe, ready-to-use, alternative fuel, whereas it's reasonable to state that numerous SVO systems are still experimental and require further advancement.
On the other hand, biodiesel can be more costly, 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 to be processed initially.
But the big and quickly growing around the world band of homebrewers don't mind-- they make a supply weekly or as soon as a month and soon get used to it. Many have actually been doing it for several years.
Anyway you have to process SVO too, particularly WVO (waste grease, utilized, prepared), which many individuals with SVO systems utilize since it's low-cost or free for the taking. With WVO food particles and impurities and water need to be removed, and it most likely should 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 scoff at that-- it's much less processing than making biodiesel, they state. To each his own.
