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 three are used with both fresh and used oils.

1. Use the oil just as it is– typically 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 first 2 techniques sound most convenient, however, as so often in life, it’s not quite that easy.

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 utilizing fossilfuel– cleaner than many, but still not clean enough, numerous would say. Still, for each gallon of

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

People use numerous mixes, varying from 10% veggie oil and 90% petro-diesel to 90% veggie oil and 10% petro-diesel. Some individuals simply utilize it that way, start up and go, without pre-heating it (that makes veg-oil much thinner), or even utilize pure vegetable oil 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 won’t like it but you probably will not kill it. Otherwise, it’s not wise.

To do it appropriately 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 gas are “speculative at best”, little or absolutely nothing is learnt about their impacts on the combustion attributes of the fuel or their long-lasting effects on the engine.

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

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

They are difficult but they’ll just take so much abuse. There’s no warranty of it, but using a mix of as much as 20% veg-oil of good quality is stated to be safe enough for older diesels, especially in summer season.

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

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