Learn about BioDiesel Alternative Fuel

Biodiesel is produced from vegetable oils and animal fats. The most popular oils used for Biodiesel include soybean oil and restaurant grease. Soybeans are one of the least expensive livestock feeds on the market, making soy oil one of the least expensive vegetable oils available. 7.3 pounds of soybean oil will produce one gallon of biodiesel. Costing 20 cents per pound, one gallon of biodiesel would cost $1.50 using soybeans. If cold pressing is used when extracting the oil, a co-product called soy bean cake is produced. This soybean cake can be used as livestock feed leaving nothing to waste. Selling the soybean cake for livestock feed reduces the cost of the soy oil used for Biodiesel. Recycled restaurant grease is a low cost form of biodiesel. Some industry suppliers claim they can produce B100 fuel as low as .46 cents per gallon.

There are different forms of Biodiesel from simple filtered vegetable oil to Biodiesel that is produced from oil that is chemically reacted with alcohol or methanol. This type of processing produces a co-product called Glycerol. In either case the oil or fats must be thoroughly filtered to remove any water or contaminants.

The most popular and widely tested use of Biodiesel is blend fuel using 20% biodiesel and 80% petroleum (B20) diesel. This blend can be used in the majority of diesel engines without any engine modification. Auto manufactures like Dodge have approved the use of (B20) biodiesel in a few of their vehicles.

B100 may require certain engine modifications to prevent gelling which would cause performance problems and maintenance issues. Some conversions warm the oil preventing the oil gelling at colder temperatures. A two fuel tank system is used in many of these conversions. The smaller tank holds petroleum diesel which is used at engine start up. After the engine warms up, the B100 fuel is then warmed. At this point the driver switches to the larger primary tank holding the B100. Before the engine is shut down the driver switches back over to the smaller petroleum diesel tank purging the B100 fuel that may gel in the fuel lines when the engine cools.

Additives are available on the market to prevent low temperature gelling. These companies advertise a gel preventing additive that claims to mix with B100 and prevent low temperature gelling without any modifications to the engine. If this product stands the test of time it could provide a flexible and wider use of B100.

The Biodiesel industry can currently supply 5% of the on road diesel use in the U.S.

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Learn More:
What is BioDiesel
Benifits of BioDiesel
Precautions when using blends over (B20)
Use Veggie Oil in your Diesel