Whats the difference between straight vegetable oil (SVO) and biodiesel?
Vegetable oil has many fuel properties that make it an attractive substitute for diesel fuel, except for much higher viscosity. Both SVO conversions and biodiesel are attempts to lower the viscosity to an acceptable level for engines designed to burn petrodiesel. The biodiesel approach is to chemically react an alcohol, usually methanol, and vegetable oil to form fatty acid methyl esters (if methanol was used), glycerin is a byproduct of this reaction and has to be removed. Biodiesel has viscosity similar to petrodiesel. The SVO conversion approach is to install components in the vehicle that will heat the vegetable oil and thereby reduce its viscosity to an acceptable level. See the System page for how we do it. Biodiesel requires that the fuel is modified each time it is collected. SVO systems modify the vehicle so that the unmodified fuel can be used. The making of biodiesel requires that oil is collected and filtered, then heated, mixed in exacting proportions with lye and methanol
