Make your own Biodiesel Part 1

There are at least 3 methods to run a diesel motor on biofuel using veggie oils, animal fats or both. All three are utilized with both fresh and pre-owned 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 blend it with a solvent, or with gas;

3. Convert it to biodiesel.

The first two techniques sound easiest, but, as so in life, it’s not quite that basic.

1. Mixing it

Grease is much more thick (thicker) than either petro-diesel or biodiesel. The purpose of blending it or mixing 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 blending veg-oil with petroleum diesel or kerosene (exact same as # 1 diesel) you’re still utilizing fossilfuel– cleaner than most, however still unclean enough, lots of would state. Still, for every single gallon of

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

People utilize different blends, varying from 10% vegetable 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 (which makes veg-oil much thinner), or perhaps utilize pure grease 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 tough and tolerant motor– it won’t like it but you probably will not eliminate it. Otherwise, it’s not wise.

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

Blends with numerous solvents and/or with unleaded gasoline are “speculative at best”, little or absolutely nothing is understood about their results on the combustion characteristics of the fuel or their long-term impacts on the engine.

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

Diesel engines are high-tech machines with very accurate fuel requirements, particularly the more contemporary, cleaner-burning diesels (see The TDI-SVO debate).

They’re 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 excellent quality is said to be safe enough for older diesels, especially in summer.

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

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