In recent times biodiesels have been advertised as the answer to all of the energy problems of the United States and other developed countries. What biodiesels offer is:
• Cheaper fuel
• Cleaner air
• A renewable fuel source
• A homegrown fuel alterative, allowing the United States to become free from its over-dependence on foreign oil.
What Are Biodiesel Fuels?
Biodiesel is a fuel for vehicles of all kinds such as cars, trucks, buses and other such means of transportation. Biodiesels are actually made from fatty acid alkylesters which can be gotten from vegetable oil, soybean oil, animal fats and other products such as recycled restaurant grease. It is safe in a lot of ways and can be handled, stored and transported easily.
What Are Its Benefits
If biodiesel is used in its pure form it makes for a fuel that burns much more cleanly and emits a lesser number of air pollutants. Biodiesels also help in the reduction of dangerous emissions of different hydrocarbons, sulfates, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, carbon monoxide and nitrated aromatic hydrocarbons. It also protects from other forms of particulate matter that tend to enter the air with the use of petroleum based fuels.
Scientific researchers currently believe that carbon dioxide alone is one of the major causative factors of greenhouse gasses which are linked in turn to global warming. The use of 100% biodiesel fuels is able to reduce the effects of dangerous greenhouse gases by as much as 75%.
The environment alone isn’t the sole beneficiary of the use of biodiesels. Humans also benefit from the use of biodiesels. These sorts of fuels are better for both our lungs as well as our hearts; they also smell better to burn than diesel smoke.
Who Can Use Biodiesel Fuel?
A lot of biodiesels are currently available in one form or the other today. A number of gasoline stations today offer fuel that is partly a mixture of about 80% petroleum and about 20% biodiesels. The consensus however is that a whole lot more has to be done in order to provide fuels that are completely made of biodiesels to the general public.
Quite unlike most people think, most vehicles that were built after 1994 can handle biodiesel fuels; some of them require some little modifications while others require none at all. No special fuel pumps or filling stations are necessary and fuel can actually be made rather quickly and efficiently as well.
The soybean industry has been one of the proponents of biodiesel fuel for a long time now. The strong points in favor of biodiesel fuels are the positive effects it has on the environment and the nation’s economy. The recent surveys conducted by the United States Department of Energy have shown that enough food exists to make approximately 2 billion gallons of biodiesel.
The cost of biodiesels is quite negligible and soybean oil which is the more popular ingredient for biodiesels is the most expensive at 20 cents a pound. The total costs of producing 1 gallon of fuel based on soybean oil costs just a lot less than $1.50 per gallon. By using recycled fats and grease you spend even less at a little more than a dollar per gallon to make.
The Downside of Using Biodiesel Fuel
Different downsides exist with the use of biodiesel fuels. Car manufacturers believe that some biodiesel fuels may affect the durability of a vehicle engine. They require whole lot more maintenance than when they use conventional petroleum products. Biodiesel fuels also aren’t that efficient in cold weather climates. Further research is required to make the fuel work better in extremely lower temperatures. On the whole however, these are the only minor problems in the journey for a form of fuel supply that is cleaner, cheaper and a lot more available too.
