Biodiesel Facts For Kids
Biodiesel Facts For Kids
BIODIESEL MADE FROM VEGETABLE OILS AND ANIMAL FATS
Biodiesel is a renewable fuel that can be used instead of diesel fuel made from petroleum. Biodioesel can be made from vegetable oils, animal fats, or greases. Most biodiesel today is made from soybean oil. About half of biodiesel producers are able to make biodiesel from used oils or fats, including recycled restaurant grease.
Biodiesel is most often blended with petroleum diesel in ratios of 2 percent (B2), 5 percent (B5), or 20 percent (B20). It can also be used as pure biodiesel (B100). Biodiesel fuels can be used in regular diesel vehicles without making any changes to the engines. It can also be stored and transported using diesel tanks and equipment.
Fueling engines with biodiesel has just started to catch on, but this isn't a new idea. Before petroleum diesel fuel became popular, Rudolf Diesel, the designer of the diesel engine, experimented with using vegetable oil (biodiesel) as fuel.
BIODIESEL AS A TRANSPORTATION FUEL
Most trucks, buses, and tractors in the United States use diesel fuel. Diesel is a nonrenewable fuel made from petroleum. Using biodiesel means that we use a little bit less petroleum. Biodiesel results in less pollution than petroleum diesel. Any vehicle that operates on diesel fuel can switch to biodiesel without changes to its engine.
Because it is so clean burning and easy to use, biodiesel is the fastest growing and most cost efficient fuel for fleet vehicles. Many school districts are switching to biodiesel blends for their school buses. Biodiesel is also being used for fleets of snowplows, garbage trucks, mail trucks, and military vehicles. So far, the use of biodiesel has been limited to fleets of vehicles that have their owner fueling stations. As the number of public fueling stations that offer biodiesel grows, it may become more popular with individual consumers.
B100 and biodiesel blends are sensitive to cold weather and may require special anti-freeze, just like petroleum-based diesel fuel does. Biodiesel acts like a detergent additive, loosening and dissolving sediments in storage tanks. Because biodiesel is a solvent, B100 may cause rubber and other components to fail in older vehicles. This problem does not occur with biodiesel blends.
BIODIESEL AND THE ENVIRONMENT
Biodiesel is renewable, nontoxic, and biodegradable. Compared to diesel, biodiesel, is significantly cleaner burning. It produces fewer air pollutants, like particulates, carbon monoxide, hydrocarbons, and air toxics. It does slightly increase emissions of nitrogen oxides, though. Biodiesel produces less black smoke, and smells better, too. Sometimes biodiesel smells like french fries!
Regular diesel fuel contains sulfur. Sulfur can cause damage to the environment when it is burned in fuels. New environmental laws will require the amount of sulfur in diesel fuel to be dramatically reduced over the next few years. When sulfur is removed from regular diesel fuel, the fuel doesn't work as well. Adding a small amount of biodiesel can fix the problem. Biodiesel has no sulfur, so it can reduce sulfur levels in the nation's diesel fuel supply while making engines run more smoothly.
EPA Requires 800 million Gallons of Biodiesel in the U.S. Domestic Market in 2011
Renewable Energy Group Inc., the largest U.S. biodiesel producer, said it bought Tellurian Biodiesel Inc. and American BDF LLC to increase access to used cooking oil for its facilities.'Read more
Renewable Energy Buys Tellurian to Boost Biodiesel Business
The Nebraska Forest Service at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, along with partners in a national consortium, has received a $1.3 million grant to develop hybrid hazelnuts as a perennial crop in Nebraska and across the nation for use as food, animal feed and biofuel.'Read more
Neb. Forest Service gets grant for hazelnut crop
Energy Minister Gerry Brownlee today blamed the biofuel industry for the low uptake of a scheme to promote it.'Read more
Industry to blame for not selling biofuels - minister
Energy Minister Gerry Brownlee today blamed the biofuel industry for the low uptake of a scheme to promote it. read more'Read more
Industry to blame for not selling biofuels - minister
Designer cells with synthetic genomes may provide "superproductive" algae for large scale biofuel pr'Read more
'Artificial Cells' May Provide Souce Of Algal Fuel
For the past three years, the South Central Solid Waste Authority (SCSWA) has been running virtually all of its diesel vehicles on biodiesel.'Read more
Recycling Connections: The BioDiesel Option
Could cut greenhouse gas emissions by 86 percent'Read more
U.S. Government Mandates 800M Gallons Biodiesel by Next Year
By LARRY P. VELLEQUETTE BLADE BUSINESS WRITER BLISSFIELD, Mich. - A fledgling Orlando, Fla., company that promised hundreds of new jobs here has been delayed by the state, but is getting ready to hire its first local employees, local officials said this week. BioDri LLC should begin hiring the first of what it says ultimately will be more than 330 local workers over the next several weeks ...'Read more
Florida firm set to hire first workers for Blissfield energy site
SEATTLE----Imperium Renewables, a leading producer of renewable, domestic and low carbon biodiesel, today criticized a report from the Congressional Budget Office titled Using Biofuel Tax Credits to Achieve Energy and Environmental Policy Goals. Imperium believes that the reports focus estimating the cost to taxpayers of the various incentives for biofuels is fatally flawed because it ...'Read more