Make your own Biodiesel Part 1

There are at least 3 methods to run a diesel motor on biofuel using vegetable oils, animal fats or both. All 3 are used with both fresh and secondhand oils.

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

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 methods sound easiest, but, as so typically in life, it’s not quite that simple.

1. Mixing it

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

If you’re mixing veg-oil with petroleum diesel or kerosene (same as # 1 diesel) you’re still utilizing fossilfuel– cleaner than many, however still not tidy enough, lots of 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 environment.

People utilize various blends, varying from 10% vegetable oil and 90% petro-diesel to 90% vegetable oil and 10% petro-diesel. Some individuals just utilize it that way, begin up and go, without pre-heating it (that makes veg-oil much thinner), or perhaps use pure grease 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 an extremely hard and tolerant motor– it will not like it however you most likely will not eliminate it. Otherwise, it’s not wise.

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

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

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

Diesel engines are modern machines with really precise fuel requirements, especially the more modern-day, cleaner-burning diesels (see The TDI-SVO controversy).

They’re difficult however they’ll only take so much abuse. There’s no guarantee of it, but utilizing a blend of approximately 20% veg-oil of good quality is said to be safe enough for older diesels, particularly in summertime.

Otherwise using veg-oil fuel requires either an option or biodiesel. Mixes and blends are normally a bad compromise. But mixes do have a benefit in cold weather.

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