Anybody can make biodiesel. It's simple, 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 much better and last longer on your home-made fuel, and it's much cleaner-- better for the environment and much better for health.
If you make it from used cooking oil it's not just inexpensive but you'll be recycling a problematic waste item. Best of all is the GREAT feeling of liberty, self-reliance and empowerment it will provide you. Here's how to do it-- whatever you require to understand.
Straight grease fuel (SVO) systems can be a tidy, reliable and cost-effective option. Unlike biodiesel, with SVO you need to customize the engine. The very best way is to fit an expert 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 use petro-diesel, biodiesel or SVO, in any combination. Just start up and go, stop and turn off, like any other car. 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 normal petroleum diesel or biodiesel in one tank and after that 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 details on straight vegetable oil systems in my blog.
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-- just put it in and go. It likewise has much 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 lots of long-term tests in many countries, including millions of miles on the road.
Biodiesel is a tidy, safe, ready-to-use, alternative fuel, whereas it's reasonable to state that lots of SVO systems are still speculative and need more 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 (and depending on where you live). And unlike SVO, it needs to be processed initially.
But the large and rapidly growing worldwide band of homebrewers do not mind-- they make a supply every week or as soon as a month and quickly get utilized to it. Many have been doing it for several years.
Anyway you have to process SVO too, especially WVO (waste vegetable oil, utilized, cooked), which lots of people with SVO systems use since it's inexpensive or totally free for the taking. With WVO food particles and pollutants and water should be removed, and it probably must be deacidified too. Biodieselers say, "If I'm going to have to do all that I might too make biodiesel instead." But SVO types discount that-- it's much less processing than making biodiesel, they state. To each his own.
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Make your own Biodiesel Part 2
Helena Laster edited this page 2025-01-18 10:34:28 +00:00