What Is Biodiesel Fuel?

According to the U.S. Department of Energy: "Biodiesel is a domestically produced, renewable fuel that can be manufactured from vegetable oils, animal fats, or recycled restaurant greases. Biodiesel is safe, biodegradable, and reduces serious air pollutants such as particulates, carbon monoxide, hydrocarbons, and air toxics. Blends of 20% biodiesel with 80% petroleum diesel (B20) can generally be used in unmodified diesel engines; however, users should consult their OEM and engine warranty statement. Biodiesel can also be used in its pure form (B100), but it may require certain engine modifications to avoid maintenance and performance problems and may not be suitable for wintertime use."

Biodiesel Fuel Alternative of the Future

Today in the US the use of biodiesel as a fuel alternative is growing.  Biodiesel is produced by combining organic oils from any number of different sources with either alcohol or petroleum diesel fuel.  The most common types of organic oil used in biodiesel production comes from soybeans but there are many other plants which may be just as good to use such as canola and rapeseed.

What is even better biodiesel can be made at home and in fact Biodiesel America has been telling its members that they can make it for as little as 50 cents a gallon just by using recycled cooking oil.  You may think this to be a little unrealistic, but today in the US there are many vehicles on the road which use biodiesel fuel which has been made from free oil from restaurants.  Because most restaurants now have to pay to dispose of the oil they use they are very often willing to give it to a vehicle owner who is willing to take it off of their hands.  In fact they could pay as much as $150 per 50 gallon drum of used grease to get rid of it correctly.

The raw material that is used to make some biodiesel comes from Midwestern soybeans and it is not uncommon to see pumps in the Midwest which are selling biodiesel alongside other fossil fuels.  The use of renewable fuel has proven to be a great way for farmers to sell their crops (allowing them to stay on their land) and which has been a benefit in the process of producing biodiesel.

Because biodiesel is made from organic carbon sources it is carbon neutral and this means that burning it does not add to carbon emissions be added to the earth's biosphere.  So when a plant photosynthesizes it uses up carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and then turns it into organic molecules such as oil.  So when you burn these oils when you use a biodiesel engine you are simply returning the carbon back into the atmosphere.  This completely different to the burning of fossil fuels as when these fuels burn they release fossil carbon which actually increases the amount of carbon to be found in the atmosphere. 

Biodiesel fuel alternative looks like a good way to go if we want to save our planet for future generations to enjoy.