The Biodiesel Manual

A Guide To the Use And Manufacture Of Biodiesel
By Chris Garnett

This manual was written in an effort to encourage the wider use of biodiesel. The author feels that the use of vegetable oils to manufacture biodiesel will help to reduce pollution and move us towards a more sustainable type of development.It is perfectly possible to make biodiesel from animal fats and oils; in fact, some of the processes are identical to those used to create biodiesel from vegetable oil.Nevertheless, I believe using vegetable oil will have a wider appeal; after all it is easier to 'grow' vegetable oil than animal oil. The text assumes vegetable oil is being used.

Until recently U.K governments seem to have 'overlooked' the advantages of using vegetable oils as a replacement for petro-chemical products. There seemed to be more emphasis seems to be attached to wind, tidal power and biomass. While not wishing in anyway to denigrate such worthy power sources, I cannot see them having more than a marginal impact in the quest for sustainability for many years to come. Biodiesel on the other hand, if properly resourced, could have a fairly rapid impact as it can be used in current machinery. The other forms of renewable energy are largely geared to generating electricity, they may help to remove a few polluting power stations but they will not impact on pollution caused by motor vehicles until a truly practical electric vehicle becomes available at a reasonable cost. Earlier in 2007 though the UK Government belatedly recognised the benefits of biodiesel and now allows a tax free personal allowance of 2500 litres a year to be manufactured by individuals

It is perfectly possible to run a diesel engine on ordinary vegetable oil; however, modifications are required to most engines to stop the thick oil from clogging fuel lines, pumps and injectors. Another important consideration is that it is not really possible to run a conventional diesel engine reliably on untreated waste vegetable oil (WVO). It would seem to be a shame that these waste products cannot be put to good use, considerable quantities of WVO is available from restaurants and fast food outlets. For these reasons I cover the use of WVO in the text. This is not to say that you cannot use the text as a guide to producing biodiesel from unused oil, it just means a few steps can be missed out

The publication gives detailed instructions on the manufacture of biodiesel from WVO on a domestic scale. Guidance is also given on how the process may be scaled up for commercial purposes.