Anyone can create their own biodiesel at home in their own kitchen. In fact, the biodiesel which you can create from your used vegetable oil is often better for your diesel motor than the petro-made diesel which you can buy. When it comes to making your own biodiesel which will run in a diesel engine, there are three options available to you.

1. Combine your biodiesel with petroldiesel
2. Use straight vegetable oil (SVO)
3. Use pure biodiesel.

The first method involves mixing your homemade oil with petrol diesel so it’ll be thinner. By nature, vegetable oil is much thicker than diesel fuel, which can cause problems in some engines. The important thing to remember if you choose this route is that while you’re burning cleaner fuel, you’re still relying on fossil fuels, which have high emissions and are not good for the environment.

When it comes to mixing your biodiesel with petrol diesel, there is not any set mixture to use. Some people create mixtures which are only 10% vegetable oil, while others use mixtures which are around 90% vegetable oil. Some people have even found that using vegetable oil straight works well for them, though it is not recommended for many of today’s diesel engines. In order to properly process your vegetable oil to be used as biodiesel, you’ll need to pre-heat the oil in order to remove any impurities, and decide on which mixture you’d like to use.

Biodiesel works in any diesel engine. There is no need to convert the engine or make any modifications to the fuel injection system. Biodiesel is clean and safe and is a great alternative fuel source, though unlike SVO, it must be processed first. Converting your own vegetable oil to bio-diesel is the best solution if you’re ready to make the switch, but some major gasoline manufacturers supply biodiesel at the pumps if you don’t feel confident in your ability to make your own bio-diesel.

Making your own biodiesel is a simple process, since it is made from vegetable compounds which you have at home in your cooking oil. The bio-diesel process uses lye as a catalyst to break down these fats and replaces them with methanol, which can be combusted and used in today’s modern engines. The whole process is known as transesterification.

For beginners just starting out making their own fuel, its recommended to make at least one test batch with high quality chemicals. These chemicals can be a bit expensive, but its important for you to understand the process and get the recipe down just right without poorer quality chemicals ruining your creation.

The alcohol which can be used in the process can be either methanol or ethanol. Methanol is still an industrial produced gas from natural gas, which is a fossil fuel. Ethanol on the other hand, is a grain alcohol, which you can easily make yourself. However, ethanol biodiesel is much harder to make than methanol biodiesel, so it is not recommended for beginners.

Tracking down all the ingredients you’ll need for creating your own homemade bio-diesel can be a task, but once you’ve gotten everything you need as well as your mixture ratio, you’ll be making your own biodiesel in no time.