There are at least three methods to run a diesel motor on biofuel using veggie oils, animal fats or both. All 3 are utilized with both fresh and pre-owned oils.

1. Use the oil simply as it is-- normally 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 gas;

3. Convert it to biodiesel.

The very first 2 techniques sound easiest, however, as so typically in life, it's not quite that basic.

1. Mixing it

Grease is a lot more thick (thicker) than either petro-diesel or biodiesel. The function of mixing it or mixing it with other fuels is to reduce 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 (exact same as # 1 diesel) you're still utilizing fossilfuel-- cleaner than the majority of, but still not clean enough, numerous would say. Still, for each gallon of

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

People use numerous blends, ranging from 10% grease and 90% petro-diesel to 90% veggie oil and 10% petro-diesel. Some people simply use it that way, start up and go, without pre-heating it (that makes veg-oil much thinner), or even use pure vegetable oil 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 really difficult and tolerant motor-- it won't like it however you probably will not kill it. Otherwise, it's not sensible.

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

Blends with numerous solvents and/or with unleaded gasoline are "experimental at finest", little or nothing is known about their results on the combustion qualities 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 various chemical homes and combustion characteristics from the petroleum diesel fuel for which diesel motor and their fuel systems are created.

Diesel engines are high-tech machines with very exact fuel requirements, especially the more contemporary, cleaner-burning diesels (see The TDI-SVO controversy).

They're tough but they'll just take a lot abuse. There's no guarantee of it, but using a mix of as much as 20% veg-oil of great quality is stated to be safe enough for older diesels, especially in summer season.

Otherwise using veg-oil fuel needs either a professional SVO service or biodiesel. Mixes and blends are typically a bad compromise. But mixes do have an advantage in cold weather.

Just like biodiesel, some kerosene or winterised petro-diesel fuel blended with straight veggie oil decreases the temperature at which it begins to gel. (See Using biodiesel in winter) More about fuel mixing and blends.