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

1. Use the oil simply as it is-- normally 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 approaches sound most convenient, however, as so frequently in life, it's not rather that basic.

1. Mixing it

Grease is much more viscous (thicker) than either petro-diesel or biodiesel. The function of blending it or mixing it with other fuels is to reduce the viscosity to make it thinner so that it streams more easily through the fuel system into the combustion chamber.

If you're mixing veg-oil with petroleum diesel or kerosene (exact same as # 1 diesel) you're still utilizing fossilfuel-- cleaner than most, but still not clean enough, numerous would say. Still, for every single gallon of

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

People use numerous mixes, varying from 10% grease and 90% petro-diesel to 90% veggie oil and 10% petro-diesel. Some people simply utilize it that method, launch 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 an extremely hard and tolerant motor-- it will not like it however you most likely will not kill it. Otherwise, it's not sensible.

To do it correctly 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 requirement for the mixes.

Blends with different solvents and/or with unleaded fuel are "experimental at finest", little or absolutely nothing is understood about their impacts on the combustion qualities of the fuel or their long-term effects on the engine.

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

Diesel engines are state-of-the-art makers with very precise fuel requirements, especially the more contemporary, cleaner-burning diesels (see The TDI-SVO debate).

They're difficult however they'll only take a lot abuse. There's no assurance of it, however using a mix of as much as 20% veg-oil of great quality is stated to be safe enough for older diesels, particularly in summer.

Otherwise using veg-oil fuel requires either a professional SVO service or biodiesel. Mixes and blends are normally a poor compromise. But mixes do have a benefit in winter.

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