Make your own Biodiesel Part 1

There are at least 3 methods to run a diesel engine on biofuel utilizing vegetable oils, animal fats or both. All three are used with both fresh and used oils.

1. Use the oil just as it is– normally called SVO fuel (straight veggie 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 simplest, but, as so frequently in life, it’s not quite that basic.

1. Mixing it

Vegetable oil is a lot more viscous (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 streams more freely through the fuel system into the combustion chamber.

If you’re blending veg-oil with petroleum diesel or kerosene (same as # 1 diesel) you’re still using fossilfuel– cleaner than a lot of, however still not tidy enough, many would say. Still, for every single gallon of

vegetable oil you use, that’s one gallon of fossil-fuel conserved, which much less climate-changing carbon in the atmosphere.

People utilize numerous mixes, varying from 10% veggie oil and 90% petro-diesel to 90% grease and 10% petro-diesel. Some people just use it that method, launch and go, without pre-heating it (which makes veg-oil much thinner), and even 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 difficult and tolerant motor– it will not like it but you most likely won’t eliminate it. Otherwise, it’s not smart.

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

Blends with various solvents and/or with unleaded fuel are « experimental at best », little or absolutely nothing is learnt about their impacts on the combustion characteristics of the fuel or their long-lasting results on the engine.

Higher viscosity is not the only issue with as fuel. Veg-oil has different chemical residential or commercial properties and combustion attributes from the petroleum diesel fuel for which diesel engines and their fuel systems are created.

Diesel motor are state-of-the-art makers with extremely exact fuel requirements, particularly the more modern-day, cleaner-burning diesels (see The TDI-SVO controversy).

They are difficult but they’ll just take a lot abuse. There’s no guarantee of it, however utilizing a blend of as much as 20% veg-oil of good quality is stated to be safe enough for older diesels, especially in summertime.

Otherwise using veg-oil fuel needs either an expert SVO service or biodiesel. Mixes and blends are typically a poor compromise. But mixes do have a benefit in winter.

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