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

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

3. Convert it to biodiesel.

The very first 2 approaches sound easiest, but, as so frequently in life, it's not rather that basic.

1. Mixing it

Grease is far more viscous (thicker) than either petro-diesel or biodiesel. The purpose of blending it or blending 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 (like # 1 diesel) you're still utilizing fossilfuel-- cleaner than most, however still not tidy enough, numerous would state. Still, for every single gallon of

veggie oil you use, that's one gallon of fossil-fuel saved, which much less climate-changing carbon in the environment.

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, start up and go, without pre-heating it (that makes veg-oil much thinner), and even use pure vegetable oil 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 really tough and tolerant motor-- it will not like it but you probably won't kill it. Otherwise, it's not sensible.

To do it appropriately you'll require what totals up 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 requirement for the mixes.

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

Higher viscosity is not the only problem with using grease as fuel. Veg-oil has various chemical properties 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 extremely precise fuel requirements, particularly the more modern, cleaner-burning diesels (see The TDI-SVO controversy).

They are difficult however they'll only take a lot abuse. There's no guarantee of it, but utilizing a mix of as much as 20% veg-oil of good quality is said to be safe enough for older diesels, specifically in summer.

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

Similar to biodiesel, some kerosene or winterised petro-diesel fuel combined with straight vegetable oil reduces the temperature at which it starts to gel. (See Using biodiesel in winter season) More about fuel mixing and blends.