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There are at least 3 ways to run a diesel engine on biofuel utilizing vegetable oils, animal fats or both. All three are utilized with both fresh and used 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 mix it with a solvent, or with fuel;

3. Convert it to biodiesel.

The very first 2 methods sound simplest, however, as so typically in life, it's not rather that simple.

1. Mixing it

Grease is far more viscous (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 or kerosene (exact same as # 1 diesel) you're still utilizing fossilfuel-- cleaner than a lot of, however still not clean enough, lots of would say. Still, for every gallon of

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

People use various mixes, varying from 10% grease and 90% petro-diesel to 90% vegetable oil and 10% petro-diesel. Some individuals just use it that method, launch and go, without pre-heating it (which makes veg-oil much thinner), and even 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 an extremely hard and tolerant motor-- it will not like it however you probably won't kill it. Otherwise, it's not sensible.

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

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

Higher viscosity is not the only issue with utilizing veggie oil as fuel. Veg-oil has various chemical homes and combustion qualities from the petroleum diesel fuel for which diesel motor and their fuel systems are designed.

Diesel engines are state-of-the-art makers with extremely exact fuel requirements, specifically the more contemporary, cleaner-burning diesels (see The TDI-SVO controversy).

They are difficult but they'll only take a lot abuse. There's no guarantee of it, however using a blend of up to 20% veg-oil of excellent quality is said to be safe enough for older diesels, specifically in summer season.

Otherwise using veg-oil fuel needs either a professional SVO solution or biodiesel. Mixes and blends are normally a poor compromise. But blends do have a benefit in cold weather.

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