Make Your Own Biodiesel Part 1

There are at least 3 ways to run a diesel engine on biofuel utilizing veggie oils, animal fats or both. All three are used with both fresh and used oils.


1. Use the oil simply as it is-- generally called SVO fuel (straight grease);


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


3. Convert it to biodiesel.


The very first two techniques sound simplest, but, as so frequently in life, it's not rather that simple.


1. Mixing it


Grease is far more thick (thicker) than either petro-diesel or biodiesel. The purpose of mixing it or blending it with other fuels is to reduce 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 (like # 1 diesel) you're still using fossilfuel-- cleaner than a lot of, however still not tidy enough, numerous would state. Still, for every single gallon of


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


People use various blends, varying from 10% veggie oil and 90% petro-diesel to 90% grease and 10% petro-diesel. Some people simply use it that method, launch and go, without pre-heating it (which makes veg-oil much thinner), and even use 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 very difficult and tolerant motor-- it will not like it but you probably won't kill it. Otherwise, it's not sensible.


To do it correctly you'll require what amounts to an SVO system with fuel pre-heating anyhow, preferably utilizing pure petro-diesel or biodiesel for starts and stops. (See next.) In which case there's no need for the mixes.


Blends with various solvents and/or with unleaded fuel are "experimental at finest", little or absolutely nothing is learnt about their effects on the combustion qualities of the fuel or their long-lasting effects on the engine.


Higher viscosity is not the only issue with utilizing grease as fuel. Veg-oil has different chemical properties and combustion attributes from the petroleum diesel fuel for which diesel engines and their fuel systems are developed.


Diesel motor are state-of-the-art machines with very requirements, specifically the more modern, cleaner-burning diesels (see The TDI-SVO controversy).


They're difficult however they'll just take so much abuse. There's no assurance of it, however using a blend of as much as 20% veg-oil of great quality is stated to be safe enough for older diesels, specifically in summer.


Otherwise using veg-oil fuel requires either an expert SVO service or biodiesel. Mixes and blends are typically a bad compromise. But blends do have a benefit in cold weather condition.


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