Make your own Biodiesel Part 1
There are at least 3 ways to run a diesel motor on biofuel using vegetable oils, animal fats or both. All 3 are used with both fresh and used oils.
1. Use the oil simply as it is-- typically 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 fuel;
3. Convert it to biodiesel.
The very first two methods sound easiest, but, as so often in life, it's not quite that basic.
1. Mixing it
Vegetable oil is much more thick (thicker) than either petro-diesel or biodiesel. The purpose of mixing it or mixing it with other fuels is to lower 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 (like # 1 diesel) you're still utilizing fossilfuel-- cleaner than the majority of, but still not clean enough, many would say. Still, for each gallon of
grease you utilize, that's one gallon of fossil-fuel saved, which much less climate-changing carbon in the environment.
People utilize different blends, ranging from 10% veggie oil and 90% petro-diesel to 90% grease and 10% petro-diesel. Some individuals just utilize it that method, start up and go, without pre-heating it (that makes veg-oil much thinner), or even utilize pure veggie oil 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 a really hard and tolerant motor-- it won't like it however you probably will not eliminate it. Otherwise, it's not smart.
To do it properly you'll require what amounts to an SVO system with fuel pre-heating anyhow, preferably using pure petro-diesel or biodiesel for starts and stops. (See next.) In which case there's no for the mixes.
Blends with numerous solvents and/or with unleaded gas are "speculative at finest", little or nothing is understood about their results on the combustion qualities of the fuel or their long-lasting results on the engine.
Higher viscosity is not the only issue with utilizing veggie oil as fuel. Veg-oil has various chemical properties and combustion qualities from the petroleum diesel fuel for which diesel motor and their fuel systems are created.
Diesel engines are state-of-the-art makers with really precise fuel requirements, specifically the more contemporary, cleaner-burning diesels (see The TDI-SVO debate).
They're hard however they'll just take so much abuse. There's no warranty of it, but using a mix of up to 20% veg-oil of good quality is stated to be safe enough for older diesels, particularly in summertime.
Otherwise using veg-oil fuel needs either a professional SVO option or biodiesel. Mixes and blends are generally a bad compromise. But blends do have an advantage in cold weather.
Just like biodiesel, some kerosene or winterised petro-diesel fuel combined with straight grease decreases the temperature level at which it starts to gel. (See Using biodiesel in winter) More about fuel blending and blends.