Make your own Biodiesel Part 1

There are at least 3 methods to run a diesel motor on biofuel utilizing veggie oils, animal fats or both. All 3 are used with both fresh and pre-owned oils.

1. Use the oil just as it is– typically called SVO fuel (straight vegetable 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 first two techniques sound easiest, but, as so frequently in life, it’s not rather that simple.

1. Mixing it

Grease is far more viscous (thicker) than either petro-diesel or biodiesel. The purpose of blending it or mixing it with other fuels is to lower 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 (like # 1 diesel) you’re still utilizing fossilfuel– cleaner than the majority of, however still not tidy enough, many 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 blends, varying from 10% grease and 90% petro-diesel to 90% veggie oil and 10% petro-diesel. Some people just utilize it that method, start up and go, without pre-heating it (that makes veg-oil much thinner), or even 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 a really tough and tolerant motor– it will not like it but you most likely won’t kill it. Otherwise, it’s not sensible.

To do it correctly you’ll need what amounts to an SVO system with fuel pre-heating anyway, ideally using pure petro-diesel or biodiesel for starts and stops. (See next.) In which case there’s no requirement for the blends.

Blends with numerous solvents and/or with unleaded gasoline are « experimental at best », little or nothing is learnt about their impacts on the combustion attributes of the fuel or their long-term impacts on the engine.

Higher viscosity is not the only issue with utilizing veggie oil as fuel. Veg-oil has different chemical homes and combustion characteristics from the petroleum diesel fuel for which diesel motor and their fuel systems are developed.

Diesel engines are modern machines with extremely exact fuel requirements, particularly the more modern-day, cleaner-burning diesels (see The TDI-SVO debate).

They’re tough but they’ll just take a lot abuse. There’s no guarantee of it, however utilizing a mix of up to 20% veg-oil of is stated to be safe enough for older diesels, particularly in summertime.

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

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