Anybody can make biodiesel. It's simple, you can make it in your kitchen-- and it's BETTER than the petro-diesel fuel the huge oil companies sell you. Your diesel motor will run better and last longer on your home-made fuel, and it's much cleaner-- better for the environment and better for health.
If you make it from used cooking oil it's not only low-cost however you'll be recycling a bothersome waste product. Most importantly is the GREAT sensation of liberty, independence and empowerment it will give you. Here's how to do it-- whatever you need to understand.
Straight vegetable oil fuel (SVO) systems can be a clean, reliable and economical alternative. Unlike biodiesel, with SVO you need to modify the engine. The best way 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 circumstances you can utilize petro-diesel, biodiesel or SVO, in any mix. Just launch and go, stop and turn off, like any other vehicle. Journey to Forever's Toyota TownAce van uses an Elsbett single-tank system. More
There are likewise two-tank SVO systems which pre-heat the oil to make it thinner. You need to start 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 switch back to petro- or biodiesel before you stop the engine, or you'll coke up the injectors.
More details 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-- simply put it in and go. It also has better cold-weather properties than SVO (but not as excellent as petro-diesel-- see Using biodiesel in winter season). Unlike SVO,
it's backed by lots of long-term tests in lots of nations, including millions of miles on the roadway.
Biodiesel is a tidy, safe, ready-to-use, alternative fuel, whereas it's fair to state that many SVO systems are still speculative and need more advancement.
On the other hand, biodiesel can be more pricey, 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 upon where you live). And unlike SVO, it needs to be processed first.
But the big and rapidly growing worldwide band of homebrewers do not mind-- they make a supply each week or once a month and quickly get utilized to it. Many have been doing it for several years.
Anyway you need to process SVO too, especially WVO (waste grease, used, cooked), which many individuals with SVO systems utilize because it's inexpensive or totally free for the taking. With WVO food particles and pollutants and water should be eliminated, and it most likely needs to be deacidified too. Biodieselers say, "If I'm going to have to do all that I might as well make biodiesel instead." But SVO types discount that-- it's much less processing than making biodiesel, they state. To each his own.
