There are at least three ways to run a diesel motor on biofuel using veggie oils, animal fats or both. All 3 are used with both fresh and secondhand oils.

1. Use the oil just as it is-- normally called SVO fuel (straight grease);

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

3. Convert it to biodiesel.

The first two techniques sound easiest, but, as so frequently in life, it's not rather that simple.

1. Mixing it

Vegetable oil is a lot more thick (thicker) than either petro-diesel or biodiesel. The function 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 (very same as # 1 diesel) you're still using fossilfuel-- cleaner than many, however still not tidy enough, lots of would state. Still, for every single gallon of

vegetable oil you use, that's one gallon of fossil-fuel saved, and that much less climate-changing carbon in the atmosphere.

People use numerous blends, varying from 10% grease and 90% petro-diesel to 90% vegetable oil and 10% petro-diesel. Some people just use it that way, begin up and go, without pre-heating it (that makes veg-oil much thinner), or perhaps 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 a very difficult and tolerant motor-- it will not like it however you most likely will not eliminate it. Otherwise, it's not wise.

To do it properly you'll require what amounts 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 requirement for the blends.

Blends with numerous solvents and/or with unleaded gas are "speculative at best", little or absolutely nothing is understood about their impacts on the combustion qualities of the fuel or their long-lasting results on the engine.

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

Diesel engines are high-tech makers with extremely exact fuel requirements, particularly the more modern, cleaner-burning diesels (see The TDI-SVO debate).

They are difficult but they'll only take so much abuse. There's no warranty of it, however utilizing a blend of up to 20% veg-oil of good quality is said to be safe enough for older diesels, especially in summer season.

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

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