Make your own Biodiesel Part 1

There are at least three ways to run a diesel engine on biofuel utilizing vegetable oils, animal fats or both. All three are used with both fresh and pre-owned oils.

1. Use the oil just as it is– usually called SVO fuel (straight grease);

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

3. Convert it to biodiesel.

The very first 2 techniques sound easiest, however, as so often in life, it’s not quite that simple.

1. Mixing it

Vegetable oil is much more viscous (thicker) than either petro-diesel or biodiesel. The function of mixing it or blending it with other fuels is to decrease the viscosity to make it thinner so that it flows more freely through the fuel system into the .

If you’re mixing veg-oil with petroleum diesel or kerosene (like # 1 diesel) you’re still utilizing fossilfuel– cleaner than most, however still not tidy enough, lots of would say. Still, for each gallon of

grease you utilize, that’s one gallon of fossil-fuel saved, and that much less climate-changing carbon in the atmosphere.

People utilize various blends, ranging from 10% grease and 90% petro-diesel to 90% veggie oil and 10% petro-diesel. Some individuals just utilize it that method, launch and go, without pre-heating it (that makes veg-oil much thinner), or perhaps utilize pure veggie oil without pre-heating it, which would make it much thinner.

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

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

Blends with different solvents and/or with unleaded gasoline are « experimental at finest », little or nothing is understood about their results on the combustion qualities of the fuel or their long-lasting effects on the engine.

Higher viscosity is not the only problem with using veggie oil as fuel. Veg-oil has different chemical residential or commercial properties and combustion characteristics from the petroleum diesel fuel for which diesel motor and their fuel systems are created.

Diesel engines are high-tech makers with very accurate fuel requirements, particularly the more modern-day, cleaner-burning diesels (see The TDI-SVO controversy).

They’re hard but they’ll just take so much abuse. There’s no guarantee of it, however using a blend of as much as 20% veg-oil of excellent quality is stated to be safe enough for older diesels, especially in summer season.

Otherwise using veg-oil fuel needs either a professional SVO option or biodiesel. Mixes and blends are normally a poor compromise. But blends do have a benefit in cold weather.

Just like biodiesel, some kerosene or winterised petro-diesel fuel blended with straight grease reduces the temperature level at which it starts to gel. (See Using biodiesel in winter) More about fuel mixing and blends.