Welcome to The Biodiesel Club - About Biodiesel
What is Sustainable Biodiesel?
Sustainable biodiesel is defined as biodiesel that was produced from waste vegetable oil (WVO), organic crops, or non-crop sources.
Creating biodiesel from plants that are not grown organically could potentially offset the environmental benefits biodiesel promises due to pollution from pesticides, herbicides, and insecticides, soil loss, habitat destruction, and, especially with soy, damage caused by growing genetically-engineered plants. In addition, biodiesel created from food-based plants or from plants that replace food-based crops increases the price of food globally*.
What is Biodiesel?
Biodiesel (B100) "methyl esters" is an alternative fuel made from natural, renewable sources, such as new and used vegetable oils and animal fats, for use in any diesel engine.
Blends of biodiesel are noted by the percentage of biodiesel in the blend of base petro-diesel. B20 means there is 20% biodiesel to the 80% petro-diesel base. B99 means there is 99% biodiesel to the 1% diesel base. B100 is the pure product and does not contain any petroleum products. Biodiesel is also an excellent lubricant and can be used as an additive to low sulfur petro-diesel or as a strong, non-toxic industrial cleaner. While biodiesel and petroleum diesel are comparable in terms of torque, horsepower, and energy content, i.e. the number of miles per gallon, B100 biodiesel is non-toxic and biodegradable.
Why Use Biodiesel?
Petroleum contains more than 40 cancer-causing chemicals and diesel emissions specifically accounts for 70% of all airborne cancer risk in the United States, according to the EPA and CARB. Biodiesel (B100), when used in a diesel engine instead of petro-diesel, eliminates particulate matter (PM) by 60%, PAH (polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons) by 80%, and nPAH (nitrated PAH's) by 90%. Nitrogen Oxides (NOx) emissions are not reduced, though a thorough study by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) found that NOx emissions do not increase with biodiesel at any blend level.
Since biodiesel largely originates from plants such as soy and
canola (rapeseed), which absorb CO2 during their lifecyle, the fuel itself is
considered carbon neutral. Every gallon of petroleum diesel, on the other hand,
emits 2.2 pounds of CO2, further contributing to global warming. In addition, On
February 3, 2010 the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) issued the final
rule to implement the expanded Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS2). This law
requires that 1.150 billion gallons of biodiesel must be used domestically by
the end of 2010. In this rule, the EPA stated that biodiesel produced from
domestic feedstock is assumed to reduce GHG emissions by 57% compared to
petroleum diesel fuel, and could be as high as 85%.
For more information please write to: TheBiodieselClub at gmail
*Global Stewards.com