Biodiesel is fuel made from natural vegetable oils, animal fats, and advanced non-food alternative crops. Plants produce their seed oils from little more than sunlight, soil, and air, while animal fats are produced when an animal eats plant oils. So, with careful management of these resources, keeping the total cycle of energy in mind, we can ensure the continued availability of biodiesel feedstocks, making biodiesel a truly renewable resource. What’s more, biodiesel burns clean, which keeps our skies and soil clean, which means we can keep on growing.
As for the more advanced technologies, there are some exciting things not just on the horizon, but in production today. You may have seen recent reports about algae, which can be grown in large volumes with minimal resources. It’s not just a future fantasy. As a growing technology-driven company, we’re working to bring these and other technologies to the marketplace even now. Read more about algae technology.
Organic Fuels is focusing on commercializing technologies that will allow us to use plants more efficiently for both food and fuel production, leaving the seeds and fruits for food and the rest of the plant for fuel.
First-generation biofuel technology uses what we eat, and second-generation technology uses what we throw away. Third-generation biofuels will be produced from the bulk of the plant mass previously ignored. With third-generation technology, we can ensure sustainability by using each part of the plant in the best possible way.
In the case of algae, each cell can contain oil for fuel, protein for food, and biomass for energy, particularly ethanol. Even corn can play a new role in the next generation, whereby the corn seed can go back to food production, and the rest, the vast majority of the plant mass, can go to energy production instead of being wasted.
It’s not enough just to be renewable. It’s no secret that if we consume all our agricultural resources in the production of fuel, we’ll quickly run out of farm land for the food we eat. We have to be sure the energy we produce doesn’t disrupt domestic and global food markets — a small hike in the price of crops at home can have a huge impact on the price of a meal abroad. That’s why we’re developing third-generation biofuel technology to restore the balance between food and fuel.
The energy yield of biodiesel is tremendous. Biodiesel can actually return more than three times the amount of energy required to produce it. That leaves petroleum and other biofuels in the dust, some of which require more energy to make them than can be gained by burning them.
“In terms of effective use of fossil energy resources, biodiesel yields around 3.2 units of fuel product energy for every unit of fossil energy consumed in the life cycle. By contrast, petroleum diesel’s life cycle yields only 0.83 units of fuel product energy per unit of fossil energy consumed.” U.S. Department of Energy, U.S. Department of Agriculture. 1998. An Overview of Biodiesel and Petroleum Diesel Life Cycles: 31 Download the complete study in PDF formatIn the broadest strokes, biodiesel manufacture is the process of changing the properties of various natural oils to make them suitable for ignition in engines. We take vegetable oil and make it less viscous, more resistant to extreme conditions, and in many other ways more suitable for real-world fuel applications than plain old vegetable oil. This means more energy can be transferred from the sun, to the plants, to the oils, and into the fuel.
Using biodiesel also displaces the use of petroleum fuels, which extends our global oil supply. We’re here to make fossil fuels obsolete, but we think slowing our rate of consumption of crude oil is a good thing too.
Contrary to popular claims, most ordinary diesel engines can use biodiesel blends without modifications. For the few that might need a little help, the changes amount to little more than a regular tune-up.
Biodiesel is usually blended with conventional diesel for most applications, in concentrations up to 20%. B20 can be found at fueling stations across the country, but it’s also used extensively in private truck fleets, in locomotives and vessels, and in portable pumps and generators. Even the military reports “only positive feedback” on their biodiesel program.
Biodiesel is more lubricative than regular diesel. Even in blends as low as 1% or 2%, biodiesel can improve the lubricity of the ultra-low-sulfur diesel now required for use in the United States, which has poor lubricating properties. In higher blends, the benefits to an engine are even greater. This keeps your engines running more smoothly, more cleanly, and for a longer lifetime. Extending the life of your engine, extending the life of your planet... no downside there.
Rudolf Diesel designed his namesake compression-combustion engines to run on peanut oil more than 100 years ago. We think It’s time to get back to our roots.
Think about this: other alternative fuels require new equipment, new safety concerns, and changes in the way fuel is stored, handled, and delivered. You might even need a specialized technician to solve tricky fuel system problems.
But high-quality biodiesel, certified by the ASTM for use in all engines, can be used almost totally interchangeably with petrol diesel. Blends up to 20% can be used with the fuel tanks, pumps, and equipment you already have; just start pumping it in. To work with pure B100 biodiesel, you might require some fresh seals and gaskets in certain applications, but it’s otherwise a very compatible and safe replacement for diesel. Stay away from low-quality biodiesel, however, in any blend. Low-grade BD does lead to the kind of equipment trouble you may have heart about.
If you’re worried that “switching” to biodiesel might leave you stranded when only regular diesel pumps are available, have no fear. Biodiesel blends well with petrol diesel, so you can generally top off a tank of one with the other and keep on rolling.
Plants extract carbon dioxide from the atmosphere in order to grow, producing stems, leaves, and seeds. The seeds produce the oil we extract and convert into biodiesel. When the biodiesel is burned, it releases carbon dioxide back into the atmosphere. There’s no increase in CO2 in the atmosphere when the biodiesel is burned, because the next crop of plants will use it again to grow.
Fossil fuels, by comparison, do not reclaim CO2 from the atmosphere, so all of the CO2 produced when petroleum fuel is burned actually adds to the amount of CO2 in the air.
Using biodiesel instead of regular diesel can therefore have a huge impact on the amount of CO2 released overall. A B20 blend, for example, reduces these CO2 emissions by 15.66%.
Source: U.S. Department of Energy National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Biodiesel Handling and Use Guidelines. Download PDF