Make your own Biodiesel Part 1

There are at least three methods to run a diesel motor on biofuel using veggie oils, or both. All three are utilized with both fresh and pre-owned oils.

1. Use the oil simply as it is– typically called SVO fuel (straight vegetable oil);

2. Mix it with kerosene (paraffin) or petroleum diesel fuel, or with biodiesel, or mix it with a solvent, or with gas;

3. Convert it to biodiesel.

The very first two methods sound easiest, however, as so typically in life, it’s not rather that basic.

1. Mixing it

Grease is a lot more viscous (thicker) than either petro-diesel or biodiesel. The function of mixing it or blending it with other fuels is to lower the viscosity to make it thinner so that it streams more freely through the fuel system into the combustion chamber.

If you’re blending veg-oil with petroleum diesel or kerosene (exact same as # 1 diesel) you’re still utilizing fossilfuel– cleaner than the majority of, however still not tidy enough, lots of would say. Still, for every gallon of

vegetable oil you use, that’s one gallon of fossil-fuel conserved, and that much less climate-changing carbon in the atmosphere.

People use numerous mixes, ranging from 10% grease and 90% petro-diesel to 90% grease and 10% petro-diesel. Some people simply utilize it that method, start up and go, without pre-heating it (that makes veg-oil much thinner), or even utilize pure veggie oil without pre-heating it, which would make it much thinner.

You may get away with it with an older Mercedes 5-cylinder IDI diesel, which is a really difficult and tolerant motor– it won’t like it but you probably will not kill it. Otherwise, it’s not sensible.

To do it effectively you’ll need what amounts to an SVO system with fuel pre-heating anyway, preferably using pure petro-diesel or biodiesel for starts and stops. (See next.) In which case there’s no requirement for the blends.

Blends with various solvents and/or with unleaded gasoline are « experimental at best », little or nothing is learnt about their results on the combustion attributes of the fuel or their long-term effects on the engine.

Higher viscosity is not the only problem with utilizing grease as fuel. Veg-oil has various chemical residential or commercial properties and combustion characteristics from the petroleum diesel fuel for which diesel engines and their fuel systems are developed.

Diesel motor are high-tech devices with very precise fuel requirements, especially the more modern-day, cleaner-burning diesels (see The TDI-SVO controversy).

They’re difficult but they’ll just take a lot abuse. There’s no warranty of it, but utilizing a blend of as much as 20% veg-oil of good quality is stated to be safe enough for older diesels, particularly in summer.

Otherwise utilizing veg-oil fuel requires either a professional SVO solution or biodiesel. Mixes and blends are usually a poor compromise. But blends do have a benefit in winter.

As with biodiesel, some kerosene or winterised petro-diesel fuel blended with straight vegetable oil reduces the temperature level at which it begins to gel. (See Using biodiesel in winter season) More about fuel blending and blends.