Biodiesel The Alternative

What Is Biodiesel?

Biodiesel is a fuel made from vegetable oils. Rapeseed and soybean oils are the most commonly used, although other vegetables oils such as mustard, palm oil, hemp and jatropha have been tried and seem to show a lot of potential. These are listed or called Virgin Oil Feedstock.

Then we have the waste vegetable oils which are byproducts from animal fats like tallow, lard and yellow grease. It is suggested by many that waste vegetable oil is the best source of oil to produce biodiesel.

Biodiesel is an environmentally friendly alternative to the petroleum diesel we use today which as higher emissions that pollute our towns, cities and environment.

Biodiesel however is old news in one sense because Dr Rudolf Diesel the inventor of the diesel engine was showing his newly invented engine at the Paris exhibition, it was running on peanut oil.

During a speech at the same exhibition he was quoted as saying "the diesel engine can be fed with vegetable oils and will help considerably in the development of the agriculture of the countries which use it." So it seems that the diesel engine was designed to run on biodiesel fuel right from the beginning.

Biodiesel is a clean burning fuel which would reduce the carbon dioxide emissions of todays vehicles by up to 100%. Biodiesel is also biodegradable and non-toxic.

The use of biodiesel is definitely becoming more popular in America and the UK, more and more petrol stations are beginning to sell biodiesel in the UK. Even celebrities like Willy Nelson, is not only using it to run his tour buses, he as also opened a chain of petrol stations to sell biodiesel too.

So to summarize some of the benefits of using biodiesel: