Make your own Biodiesel Part 1

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

1. Use the oil simply as it is– normally called SVO fuel (straight vegetable 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 very first two methods sound simplest, but, as so typically in life, it’s not rather that basic.

1. Mixing it

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

If you’re blending veg-oil with petroleum diesel or kerosene (like # 1 diesel) you’re still using fossilfuel– cleaner than a lot of, however still unclean enough, lots of would say. 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 atmosphere.

People use various blends, varying from 10% grease and 90% petro-diesel to 90% grease and 10% petro-diesel. Some individuals just use it that method, launch and go, without pre-heating it (which makes veg-oil much thinner), or even utilize 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 hard and tolerant motor– it won’t like it however you probably won’t kill it. Otherwise, it’s not wise.

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

Blends with numerous solvents and/or with unleaded gas are «speculative at finest», little or absolutely nothing is learnt about their effects on the combustion attributes of the fuel or their long-lasting effects on the engine.

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

Diesel motor are high-tech devices with really exact fuel requirements, particularly the more contemporary, cleaner-burning diesels (see The TDI-SVO controversy).

They are difficult however they’ll only take so much abuse. There’s no guarantee of it, however utilizing a blend of up to 20% veg-oil of is stated to be safe enough for older diesels, particularly in summer.

Otherwise using veg-oil fuel requires either a professional SVO service or biodiesel. Mixes and blends are generally a bad compromise. But blends do have a benefit in winter.

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