Make your own Biodiesel Part 1

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

1. Use the oil just as it is– generally 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 gas;

3. Convert it to biodiesel.

The very first 2 methods sound most convenient, but, as so often in life, it’s not quite that basic.

1. Mixing it

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

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

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

People use different blends, varying from 10% vegetable oil and 90% petro-diesel to 90% veggie oil and 10% petro-diesel. Some people simply use it that method, launch and go, without pre-heating it (that makes veg-oil much thinner), or perhaps 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 an extremely tough and tolerant motor– it will not like it however you probably won’t kill it. Otherwise, it’s not wise.

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

Blends with various solvents and/or with unleaded fuel are “speculative at finest”, little or absolutely nothing is understood about their impacts on the combustion characteristics of the fuel or their long-lasting impacts on the engine.

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

Diesel engines are state-of-the-art makers with very accurate fuel requirements, specifically the more modern-day, cleaner-burning diesels (see The TDI-SVO controversy).

They’re tough however they’ll only take so much abuse. There’s no assurance of it, but using a mix of approximately 20% veg-oil of good quality is said to be safe enough for older diesels, especially in summer season.

Otherwise using veg-oil fuel needs either an expert SVO option or biodiesel. Mixes and blends are usually a bad compromise. But mixes do have a benefit in cold weather condition.

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