Anybody can make biodiesel. It's easy, you can make it in your kitchen area-- and it's BETTER than the petro-diesel fuel the big 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 much better for health.

If you make it from used cooking oil it's not just inexpensive however you'll be recycling a troublesome waste product. Best of all is the GREAT sensation of freedom, self-reliance and empowerment it will provide 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 need to customize the engine. The finest way is to fit a professional 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 use petro-diesel, biodiesel or SVO, in any combination. Just launch 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 likewise two-tank SVO systems which pre-heat the oil to make it thinner. You need to begin 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 change back to petro- or biodiesel before you stop the engine, or you'll coke up the injectors.

More information on straight grease systems in my blog site.

3. Biodiesel or SVO?

Biodiesel has some clear advantages 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 likewise has better cold-weather homes than SVO (but not as excellent as petro-diesel-- see Using biodiesel in winter). Unlike SVO,

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

Biodiesel is a clean, safe, ready-to-use, alternative fuel, whereas it's reasonable to state that lots of SVO systems are still experimental and need additional development.

On the other hand, biodiesel can be more pricey, depending how much you make, what you make it from and whether you're comparing it with new oil or used oil (and depending on where you live). And unlike SVO, it has actually to be processed first.

But the large and rapidly growing worldwide band of homebrewers don't mind-- they make a supply weekly or once a month and quickly get used to it. Many have been doing it for several years.

Anyway you have to process SVO too, specifically WVO (waste vegetable oil, used, prepared), which numerous people with SVO systems use because it's cheap or for the taking. With WVO food particles and pollutants and water need to be eliminated, and it probably should be deacidified too. Biodieselers say, "If I'm going to need to do all that I may as well make biodiesel rather." But SVO types discount that-- it's much less processing than making biodiesel, they say. To each his own.