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 business sell you. Your diesel motor will run better and last longer on your home-made fuel, and it's much cleaner-- much better for the environment and better for health.

If you make it from used cooking oil it's not only inexpensive but you'll be recycling a bothersome waste product. Best of all is the GREAT feeling of freedom, self-reliance and empowerment it will provide you. Here's how to do it-- everything you require to know.

Straight grease fuel (SVO) systems can be a clean, reliable and economical alternative. Unlike biodiesel, with SVO you need to modify the engine. The very best way 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 use petro-diesel, biodiesel or SVO, in any mix. Just launch and go, stop and change off, like any other car. Journey to Forever's Toyota TownAce van uses 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 begin the engine on ordinary 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 switch back to petro- or biodiesel before you stop the engine, or you'll coke up the injectors.

More details on straight vegetable oil systems in my blog.

3. Biodiesel or SVO?

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

it's backed by lots of long-lasting tests in numerous nations, including millions of miles on the roadway.

Biodiesel is a tidy, safe, ready-to-use, alternative fuel, whereas it's fair to say that many SVO systems are still speculative and need further development.

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

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

Anyway you need to process SVO too, specifically WVO (waste grease, utilized, cooked), which many individuals with SVO systems utilize because it's inexpensive or complimentary for the taking. With WVO food particles and impurities and water should be removed, and it most likely ought to be deacidified too. Biodieselers say, "If I'm going to need to do all that I might also make biodiesel instead." But SVO types belittle that-- it's much less processing than making biodiesel, they say. To each his own.