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 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 inexpensive however you'll be recycling a bothersome waste product. Most importantly is the GREAT feeling of liberty, independence and empowerment it will offer you. Here's how to do it-- whatever you require to understand.

Straight vegetable oil fuel (SVO) systems can be a tidy, reliable and economical alternative. Unlike biodiesel, with SVO you have to modify the engine. The very best method 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 utilize petro-diesel, biodiesel or SVO, in any mix. Just launch and go, stop and change 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 begin the engine on regular petroleum diesel or biodiesel in one tank and then 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.

3. Biodiesel or SVO?

Biodiesel has some clear benefits 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 much better cold-weather residential or commercial than SVO (but not as excellent as petro-diesel-- see Using biodiesel in winter). Unlike SVO,

it's backed by lots of long-term tests in many countries, including countless miles on the roadway.

Biodiesel is a tidy, safe, ready-to-use, alternative fuel, whereas it's reasonable to say that many SVO systems are still speculative and need more development.

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 utilized oil (and depending on where you live). And unlike SVO, it needs to be processed first.

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

Anyway you need to process SVO too, particularly WVO (waste veggie oil, used, prepared), which many people with SVO systems use because it's inexpensive or free for the taking. With WVO food particles and impurities and water need to be eliminated, and it most likely needs to be deacidified too. Biodieselers say, "If I'm going to need to do all that I might too make biodiesel rather." But SVO types discount that-- it's much less processing than making biodiesel, they say. To each his own.