Anybody can make biodiesel. It's simple, you can make it in your cooking 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 inexpensive but you'll be recycling a frustrating waste product. Best of all is the GREAT feeling of liberty, self-reliance 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 tidy, reliable and economical alternative. Unlike biodiesel, with SVO you have to customize the engine. The finest method is to fit a professional singletank SVO system with replacement injectors and glowplugs optimised for veg-oil, along with fuel heating.
With the German Elsbett single-tank SVO system for example you can utilize petro-diesel, biodiesel or SVO, in any combination. Just begin up and go, stop and change off, like any other vehicle. 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 start the engine on regular petroleum diesel or biodiesel in one tank and then switch 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 info 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 modifications 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 (but not as great as petro-diesel-- see Using biodiesel in winter). Unlike SVO,
it's backed by lots of long-lasting tests in many countries, of millions of miles on the road.
Biodiesel is a tidy, safe, ready-to-use, alternative fuel, whereas it's fair to say that many SVO systems are still experimental and require 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 used oil (and depending upon where you live). And unlike SVO, it needs to be processed first.
But the big and quickly growing worldwide band of homebrewers don't mind-- they make a supply every week or as soon as a month and quickly get utilized to it. Many have actually been doing it for several years.
Anyway you need to process SVO too, specifically WVO (waste grease, used, prepared), which lots of individuals with SVO systems utilize since it's low-cost or totally free for the taking. With WVO food particles and impurities and water need to be removed, and it most likely must be deacidified too. Biodieselers state, "If I'm going to have to do all that I might as well make biodiesel instead." But SVO types scoff at that-- it's much less processing than making biodiesel, they state. To each his own.
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Make your own Biodiesel Part 2
Archer Hoffmann edited this page 6 days ago