Anybody can make biodiesel. It's easy, 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 much 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 just cheap however you'll be recycling a frustrating waste item. Most importantly is the GREAT feeling of freedom, self-reliance and empowerment it will offer you. Here's how to do it-- everything you need to know.

Straight vegetable oil fuel (SVO) systems can be a tidy, efficient and affordable option. 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, as well as 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 switch off, like any other cars and truck. Journey to Forever's Toyota TownAce van utilizes 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 common 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 vegetable oil systems in my blog.

3. Biodiesel or SVO?

Biodiesel has some clear benefits over SVO: it works in any diesel, without any conversion or adjustments to the engine or the fuel system-- simply put it in and go. It also has better cold-weather residential or commercial properties than SVO (however not as great as petro-diesel-- see Using biodiesel in winter). Unlike SVO,

it's backed by numerous long-term tests in many countries, including millions of 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 experimental and need additional advancement.

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

But the large and rapidly growing around the world band of homebrewers do not mind-- they make a supply each week or once a month and soon get utilized to it. Many have actually 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 due to the fact that it's cheap or free for the taking. With WVO food particles and pollutants and water must be gotten rid of, and it most likely should be deacidified too. Biodieselers state, "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.