There are at least three methods to run a diesel motor on biofuel using veggie oils, animal fats or both. All 3 are utilized with both fresh and secondhand oils.

1. Use the oil simply as it is-- normally called SVO fuel (straight grease);

2. Mix it with kerosene (paraffin) or petroleum diesel fuel, or with biodiesel, or blend it with a solvent, or with gas;

3. Convert it to biodiesel.

The first two methods sound simplest, however, as so typically in life, it's not rather that easy.

1. Mixing it

Grease is far more viscous (thicker) than either petro-diesel or biodiesel. The purpose of mixing it or blending it with other fuels is to decrease the viscosity to make it thinner so that it flows more easily through the fuel system into the combustion chamber.

If you're blending veg-oil with petroleum diesel or kerosene (like # 1 diesel) you're still utilizing fossilfuel-- cleaner than many, but still unclean enough, lots of would say. Still, for each gallon of

vegetable oil you utilize, that's one gallon of fossil-fuel conserved, which much less climate-changing carbon in the atmosphere.

People use various blends, ranging from 10% grease and 90% petro-diesel to 90% veggie oil and 10% petro-diesel. Some individuals simply utilize it that way, launch and go, without pre-heating it (that makes veg-oil much thinner), or even utilize pure grease without pre-heating it, which would make it much thinner.

You might get away with it with an older Mercedes 5-cylinder IDI diesel, which is an extremely hard and tolerant motor-- it will not like it however you probably won't kill it. Otherwise, it's not sensible.

To do it properly you'll require what totals up to an SVO system with fuel pre-heating anyhow, preferably using pure petro-diesel or biodiesel for starts and stops. (See next.) In which case there's no need for the mixes.

Blends with different solvents and/or with unleaded gas are "speculative at best", little or absolutely nothing is learnt about their effects on the combustion qualities of the fuel or their long-lasting effects on the engine.

Higher viscosity is not the only issue with utilizing grease as fuel. Veg-oil has various chemical homes and combustion characteristics from the petroleum diesel fuel for which diesel engines and their fuel systems are created.

Diesel motor are high-tech makers with extremely accurate fuel requirements, particularly the more contemporary, cleaner-burning diesels (see The TDI-SVO debate).

They are difficult however they'll only take so much abuse. There's no warranty of it, however utilizing a mix of as much as 20% veg-oil of great quality is stated to be safe enough for older diesels, particularly in summer.

Otherwise using veg-oil fuel needs either a professional SVO solution or biodiesel. Mixes and blends are normally a bad compromise. But blends do have an advantage in winter.

Just like biodiesel, some kerosene or winterised petro-diesel fuel blended with straight vegetable oil reduces the temperature level at which it starts to gel. (See Using biodiesel in winter season) More about fuel mixing and blends.