Difference between revisions of "Make Your Own Biodiesel Part 1"

Latest revision as of 03:58, 11 January 2025

There are at least three ways to run a diesel engine on biofuel using 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 grease);


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


3. Convert it to biodiesel.


The first 2 techniques sound most convenient, however, as so often in life, it's not quite that simple.


1. Mixing it


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


If you're blending veg-oil with or kerosene (very same as # 1 diesel) you're still using fossilfuel-- cleaner than the majority of, but still unclean enough, many would state. Still, for every single gallon of


veggie oil you utilize, that's one gallon of fossil-fuel conserved, and that much less climate-changing carbon in the environment.


People utilize numerous blends, ranging from 10% grease and 90% petro-diesel to 90% veggie oil and 10% petro-diesel. Some individuals just utilize it that method, launch and go, without pre-heating it (which makes veg-oil much thinner), or perhaps utilize 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 but you most likely won't eliminate it. Otherwise, it's not sensible.


To do it properly you'll need 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 blends.


Blends with numerous solvents and/or with unleaded gas are "speculative at finest", little or absolutely nothing is learnt about their results on the combustion characteristics of the fuel or their long-term effects on the engine.


Higher viscosity is not the only issue with utilizing grease as fuel. Veg-oil has different 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 modern devices with extremely accurate fuel requirements, especially the more contemporary, cleaner-burning diesels (see The TDI-SVO debate).


They are difficult however they'll only take a lot abuse. There's no guarantee of it, but utilizing a mix of up to 20% veg-oil of great quality is said to be safe enough for older diesels, particularly in summer season.


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


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