Make your own Biodiesel Part 2
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 huge oil companies sell you. Your diesel motor will run better and last longer on your home-made fuel, and it's much cleaner-- better for the environment and much better for health.
If you make it from oil it's not just inexpensive but you'll be recycling a frustrating waste product. Most importantly is the GREAT feeling of freedom, independence and empowerment it will offer you. Here's how to do it-- everything you require to know.
Straight vegetable oil fuel (SVO) systems can be a clean, reliable and economical option. Unlike biodiesel, with SVO you have to modify the engine. The finest method is to fit an expert singletank SVO system with replacement injectors and glowplugs optimised for veg-oil, in addition to 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 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 normal petroleum diesel or biodiesel in one tank and after that switch 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 details on straight veggie oil systems in my blog site.
3. Biodiesel or SVO?
Biodiesel has some clear advantages over SVO: it operates in any diesel, with no conversion or modifications to the engine or the fuel system-- just put it in and go. It likewise has better cold-weather properties 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 millions of miles on the roadway.
Biodiesel is a tidy, safe, ready-to-use, alternative fuel, whereas it's fair to say that numerous SVO systems are still speculative and need additional advancement.
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 brand-new oil or used oil (and depending on 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 weekly or once a month and soon get utilized to it. Many have actually been doing it for years.
Anyway you need to process SVO too, especially WVO (waste veggie oil, used, cooked), which lots of people with SVO systems utilize because it's cheap or complimentary for the taking. With WVO food particles and pollutants and water need to be removed, and it probably needs to be deacidified too. Biodieselers say, "If I'm going to need to do all that I may as well make biodiesel instead." But SVO types belittle that-- it's much less processing than making biodiesel, they say. To each his own.