Make your own Biodiesel Part 1

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

1. Use the oil simply as it is– typically 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 2 methods sound most convenient, but, as so frequently in life, it’s not quite that easy.

1. Mixing it

Vegetable oil is far more thick (thicker) than either petro-diesel or biodiesel. The purpose of mixing it or mixing it with other fuels is to lower the viscosity to make it thinner so that it flows more easily through the fuel system into the combustion chamber.

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

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

People use various mixes, ranging from 10% veggie oil and 90% petro-diesel to 90% grease and 10% petro-diesel. Some individuals simply use it that method, launch and go, without pre-heating it (which 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 very difficult and tolerant motor– it will not like it but you most likely will not eliminate it. Otherwise, it’s not smart.

To do it correctly 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 mixes.

Blends with various solvents and/or with unleaded gasoline are “experimental at best”, little or nothing is understood about their effects on the combustion attributes of the fuel or their long-lasting results on the engine.

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

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

They’re hard however they’ll just take a lot abuse. There’s no warranty of it, but using a blend of as much as 20% veg-oil of great quality is said to be safe enough for older diesels, specifically in summer.

Otherwise utilizing veg-oil fuel requires either an expert SVO service or biodiesel. Mixes and blends are usually a poor compromise. But blends do have an advantage in cold weather condition.

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