Anybody can make biodiesel. It's simple, you can make it in your kitchen 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 better for health.

If you make it from used cooking oil it's not just cheap but you'll be recycling a troublesome waste item. Most importantly is the GREAT sensation of freedom, independence and empowerment it will provide you. Here's how to do it-- everything you require to know.

Straight vegetable oil fuel (SVO) systems can be a clean, reliable and cost-effective option. Unlike biodiesel, with SVO you have to customize the engine. The best way 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 combination. Just launch and go, stop and turn off, like any other vehicle. 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 then change to SVO in the other tank when the veg-oil is hot enough, and switch back to petro- or biodiesel before you stop the engine, or you'll coke up the injectors.

More details on straight grease systems in my blog.

3. Biodiesel or SVO?

Biodiesel has some clear benefits over SVO: it works in any diesel, with no conversion or modifications to the engine or the fuel system-- just put it in and go. It also has much better cold-weather homes than SVO (however not as good as petro-diesel-- see Using biodiesel in winter season). Unlike SVO,

it's backed by numerous long-term tests in numerous countries, consisting of countless miles on the road.

Biodiesel is a clean, safe, ready-to-use, alternative fuel, whereas it's reasonable to say that lots of SVO systems are still experimental and require additional 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 utilized oil (and depending on where you live). And unlike SVO, it needs to be processed initially.

But the big and rapidly growing worldwide band of homebrewers don't mind-- they make a supply each week or when a month and soon get used to it. Many have been doing it for many years.

Anyway you need to process SVO too, particularly WVO (waste veggie oil, utilized, cooked), which lots of people with SVO systems use due to the fact that it's low-cost or complimentary for the taking. With WVO food particles and pollutants and water must be eliminated, and it probably needs to be deacidified too. Biodieselers state, "If I'm going to have to do all that I might too make biodiesel instead." But SVO types belittle that-- it's much less processing than making biodiesel, they say. To each his own.