About Biodiesel
Biodiesel is the new buzzword in the fuel industry. It is a safe and
environment friendly alternative to conventional fossil fuels. It can be
produced from vegetable oil, animal fat, waste cooking oil and so on.
The fuel property of biodiesel is very similar to that of diesel and
petrol. Thus, biodiesel can easily replace these fuels in many
applications. In fact, biodiesel can readily be integrated into the
petroleum and diesel supply, distribution and transport that already
exist.
The process used to convert other oils into biodiesel is called
transesterification. The largest source of suitable oil for this process
comes from oil crops such as rapeseed, palm or soybean. Most of the
biodiesel that is produced presently is from waste vegetable oil that is
collected from restaurants, chip shops and other Industrial food
producer. However, unfortunately, biodiesel cannot be manufactured
commercially because raw oil is very expensive and once the cost of
converting it to biodiesel is added to it, the price of biodiesel
becomes very high. But this can be remedied if the waste oil is sourced
from the right place.
Biodiesel can be used as a pure fuel in your car, or it may be blended
with petroleum in any percentage. In the US, the mix most common is 20
percent by volume biodiesel with 80 percent by volume petroleum diesel.
This minor change in the fuel pattern has made a significant difference
to the environment.
Rudolph Diesel, who invented the original diesel engine, had in fact run
his engine in peanut oil. Though, at that time this was seen as a waste
of oil, Rudolph was foresighted enough to mention that the “use of
vegetable oils for engine fuels” would one day become “as important as
petroleum and the coal-tar products.”
Why should you use biodiesel?
Biodiesel is extremely simple to use. It is biodegradable, nontoxic,
and essentially free of sulphur and aromatics. As it is made from
renewable sources, it is great for the environment. You can reduce your
carbon footprint by using less fossil fuel and more biodiesel. It is in
fact, less toxic than your regular table salt and can biodegrade as fast
as sugar.
Usage in various spheres
Halifax updated its bus system to run entirely on fish-oil bio fuel
since 2004. McDonalds, UK decided to start producing biodiesel from the
waste oil by-product of its restaurants from the year 2007. They would
be using this fuel to run their fleet.
Biodiesel has also begun to be used in trains and flights. It can also
be used as heating oil. In fact, some countries have passed a law where
all home heating diesel should be converted to biofuel in near future. |
