Homemade Biodiesel
The eco-friendly biodiesel is made from vegetable oil, animal fat and
used oils. Thus, unlike fossil fuel, it does not eat away at the limited
resources of the earth. In addition to this, it also serves to reduce
the carbon emission in the environment. Thus, biodiesel is increasingly
becoming a popular choice for running cars and for other purposes.
However, though this might seem like the perfect answer to all our
problems, biodiesel has certain disadvantages too. If you are planning
to convert your vehicle to biofuel, it will be good to know the minor
disadvantages that plague the fuel.
Cloud Point
Firstly, biodiesel does not perform as well as petroleum under cold
weather conditions. Thus, if you live in a cold country, you will have
to take adequate preparations before you can use the biofuel.
The cloud point of a fuel is the point at which biodiesel begins to gel
or solidify. Thus, if the cloud point of the biodiesel you are using is
too low, it will solidify soon, thus affecting the way your car
performs. Biodiesel takes on the characteristic of the thing that it is
extracted from. Thus, if your biodiesel is made from soybean oil, then
the cloud point of the biodiesel will be less than -2°C. However, the
cloud point of biofuel from palm oil can be more than 10°C.
Thus, it is extremely important that the material from which the fuel is
being manufactured is suitable for the country for which the fuel is
being produced. It is for this reason that major fuel standards like
ASTM D6751 and EN 14214, specify what the maximum cloud point should be.
The waste cooking oil is one of the major sources for manufacturing
biodiesel. However, unfortunately, since the waste oils are sourced from
various places, it is impossible to determine the cloud point of the
fuel that is generated. For this reason, each batch of fuel is tested
under factory conditions to make sure that they operate under proper
temperature.
Loss of power
When your car is running on biofuel, you will experience a loss of
power of anything between 1-10%. This might be a problem when your car
is running on full load, heavy acceleration and so on. However, this
might not poser to be a huge issue, as most cars have plenty of spare
power.
Material incompatibility
Biodiesel tends to dissolve the nitrile rubbers that are often used
in various parts of a car. This makes many car systems incompatible with
biofuel – especially if you have an old car. However, most recent cars
are manufactured with biodiesel friendly materials, so you do not have
much to worry about.
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