Make Your Own Biodiesel Part 1

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


1. Use the oil simply as it is-- normally 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 two techniques sound simplest, however, as so typically in life, it's not quite that easy.


1. Mixing it


Vegetable oil is much more thick (thicker) than either petro-diesel or biodiesel. The function of blending it or 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 mixing veg-oil with petroleum diesel or kerosene (very same as # 1 diesel) you're still utilizing fossilfuel-- cleaner than a lot of, however still not clean enough, lots of would state. Still, for every gallon of


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


People utilize different mixes, varying from 10% vegetable oil and 90% petro-diesel to 90% vegetable oil and 10% petro-diesel. Some people simply use it that method, launch and go, without pre-heating it (that makes veg-oil much thinner), and even utilize pure grease 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 very hard and tolerant motor-- it will not like it however you most likely won't eliminate it. Otherwise, it's not wise.


To do it appropriately you'll need what amounts 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 need for the mixes.


Blends with different solvents and/or with unleaded gas are "speculative at finest", little or absolutely nothing is known about their effects on the combustion characteristics of the fuel or their long-lasting impacts on the engine.


Higher viscosity is not the only issue with using grease as fuel. Veg-oil has different chemical homes and combustion attributes from the petroleum diesel fuel for which diesel motor and their fuel systems are created.


Diesel motor are state-of-the-art makers with really precise fuel requirements, especially the more modern, cleaner-burning diesels (see The TDI-SVO controversy).


They're hard but they'll only take a lot abuse. There's no warranty of it, however utilizing a blend of up to 20% veg-oil of good quality is stated to be safe enough for older diesels, especially in summer season.


Otherwise using veg-oil fuel requires either an expert SVO option or biodiesel. Mixes and blends are generally a poor compromise. But mixes do have a benefit in winter.


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