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 used oils.

1. Use the oil simply as it is– usually called SVO fuel (straight veggie oil);

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

3. Convert it to biodiesel.

The first two techniques sound most convenient, but, as so often in life, it’s not quite that simple.

1. Mixing it

Grease is far more thick (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 streams 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 utilizing fossilfuel– cleaner than a lot of, however still not tidy enough, lots of would state. Still, for every 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 use different blends, ranging from 10% vegetable oil and 90% petro-diesel to 90% grease and 10% petro-diesel. Some individuals simply utilize it that method, launch and go, without pre-heating it (that makes veg-oil much thinner), and even use 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 difficult and tolerant motor– it will not like it however you probably won’t eliminate it. Otherwise, it’s not sensible.

To do it properly you’ll require what amounts 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 blends.

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

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

Diesel motor are high-tech devices with extremely precise fuel requirements, especially the more contemporary, cleaner-burning diesels (see The TDI-SVO debate).

They’re tough however they’ll only take so much abuse. There’s no guarantee of it, but using a mix of as much as 20% veg-oil of excellent quality is stated to be safe enough for older diesels, specifically in summer.

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

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