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 big oil companies offer 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 inexpensive but you'll be recycling a problematic waste product. Most importantly is the GREAT feeling of flexibility, independence and empowerment it will provide you. Here's how to do it-- everything you need to understand.

Straight veggie oil fuel (SVO) systems can be a clean, reliable and affordable option. Unlike biodiesel, with SVO you need to customize the engine. The very best method is to fit a professional singletank SVO system with replacement injectors and glowplugs optimised for veg-oil, in addition to fuel heating.

With the German Elsbett single-tank SVO system for example you can utilize petro-diesel, biodiesel or SVO, in any mix. 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 need to begin the engine on normal petroleum diesel or biodiesel in one tank and after that change 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 information on straight veggie oil systems in my blog site.

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 residential or commercial properties than SVO (but not as excellent as petro-diesel-- see Using biodiesel in winter season). Unlike SVO,

it's backed by numerous long-lasting tests in numerous countries, consisting of countless miles on the road.

Biodiesel is a clean, safe, ready-to-use, alternative fuel, whereas it's reasonable to state that many SVO systems are still experimental and need further advancement.

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 on where you live). And unlike SVO, it has actually to be processed first.

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

Anyway you have to process SVO too, especially WVO (waste veggie oil, used, prepared), which lots of people with SVO systems utilize because it's inexpensive or free for the taking. With WVO food particles and and water need to be eliminated, and it most likely must be deacidified too. Biodieselers state, "If I'm going to need to do all that I may also make biodiesel rather." But SVO types scoff at that-- it's much less processing than making biodiesel, they say. To each his own.