Make your own Biodiesel Part 1

There are at least three ways to run a diesel engine on biofuel using veggie oils, animal fats or both. All 3 are utilized with both fresh and pre-owned oils.

1. Use the oil simply as it is– usually 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 simplest, but, as so often in life, it’s not rather that basic.

1. Mixing it

Grease is a lot more viscous (thicker) than either petro-diesel or biodiesel. The function of blending it or blending it with other fuels is to lower the viscosity to make it thinner so that it flows 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 using fossilfuel– cleaner than the majority of, however still not tidy enough, numerous would state. Still, for each gallon of

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

People utilize numerous mixes, varying from 10% veggie oil and 90% petro-diesel to 90% veggie oil and 10% petro-diesel. Some people simply utilize it that way, 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 may get away with it with an older Mercedes 5-cylinder IDI diesel, which is a really difficult and tolerant motor– it won’t like it but you most likely will not kill it. Otherwise, it’s not sensible.

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

Blends with numerous solvents and/or with unleaded fuel are “experimental at best”, little or absolutely nothing is understood about their impacts on the combustion qualities of the fuel or their long-lasting effects on the engine.

Higher viscosity is not the only problem with utilizing veggie oil as fuel. Veg-oil has various chemical homes and combustion qualities from the petroleum diesel fuel for which diesel engines and their fuel systems are developed.

Diesel motor are state-of-the-art devices with very precise fuel requirements, specifically the more contemporary, cleaner-burning diesels (see The TDI-SVO controversy).

They’re tough but they’ll just take so much abuse. There’s no assurance of it, but utilizing a mix of up to 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 a professional SVO or biodiesel. Mixes and blends are generally a poor compromise. But mixes do have a benefit in winter.

Similar to biodiesel, some kerosene or winterised petro-diesel fuel mixed with straight vegetable oil lowers the temperature level at which it starts to gel. (See Using biodiesel in winter season) More about fuel blending and blends.