There are at least three ways to run a diesel motor on biofuel utilizing veggie oils, animal fats or both. All three are utilized with both fresh and secondhand oils.

1. Use the oil simply as it is-- generally 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 techniques sound simplest, however, as so frequently in life, it's not quite that basic.

1. Mixing it

Vegetable oil is a lot more thick (thicker) than either petro-diesel or biodiesel. The function of blending 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 (like # 1 diesel) you're still utilizing fossilfuel-- cleaner than most, however still not tidy enough, lots of would say. Still, for every gallon of

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

People utilize various mixes, ranging from 10% veggie oil and 90% petro-diesel to 90% grease and 10% petro-diesel. Some individuals simply use it that way, begin up and go, without pre-heating it (which makes veg-oil much thinner), or even use 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 hard and tolerant motor-- it won't like it however you most likely will not eliminate it. Otherwise, it's not smart.

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

Blends with numerous solvents and/or with unleaded gas are "experimental at best", little or absolutely nothing is understood about their effects on the combustion attributes of the fuel or their long-term results on the engine.

Higher viscosity is not the only issue with utilizing grease 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 engines are high-tech makers with very exact fuel requirements, especially the more modern, 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 using a blend of as much as 20% veg-oil of great quality is said to be safe enough for older diesels, especially in summertime.

Otherwise utilizing veg-oil fuel requires either an expert SVO option or biodiesel. Mixes and blends are typically a poor compromise. But blends do have a benefit in cold weather.

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