Biodiesel Glossary
Biodiesel
Biodiesel is a clean burning liquid fuel, produced from domestic, renewable resources like soybeans, sunflowers, and even from recycled cooking oils or animal fats. Biodiesel contains no petroleum, but it can be blended at any level with petroleum diesel to create a biodiesel blend. It can be used in compression-ignition (diesel) engines with little or no modification. Biodiesel is simple to use, biodegradable, nontoxic, and essentially free of sulfur & aromatics. Biodiesel reduces serious air pollutants such as particulates, carbon monoxide, hydrocarbons, and other air toxins. Biodiesel can be made simply and has been for over a hundred years. Biodiesel can be used as a cleaner-burning vehicle fuel and a source for residential or commercial heating.
The Diesel Engine
The Diesel engine was invented by German engineer Rudolf Diesel to run on a diverse set of fuels including peanut oil. It is engineered to be efficient and long lasting, normally getting 30-50% more MPG over gas. Today, Volkswagen Jetta TDIs (Turbo Diesel Injection) get close to 50 MPG.
Straight Vegetable Oil
Pure vegetable oil must be processed before it can be used as a fuel. The oil must be first filtered to a minimum of 10 microns, dried (to less than 1% water), degummed, fatty acids removed, and heated to >167 degrees F. To run the vegetable oil in a diesel engine, a fuel heating system and additional fuel filters are also required.
Petroleum
- Formed more than 300 million years ago
- Edwin L. Drake in Pennsylvania drilled the first oil well in 1859.
- Global oil production per capita peaked in 1979. Population is increasing faster than oil production.
- Also makes fertilizers, insecticides, & plastic
- Fossil fuels such as coal, oil and natural gas consume and pollute water, harm plant and animal life, create toxic wastes, and contribute to greenhouse gas emissions.
Energy Consumption
- Transportation accounts for two-thirds of the U.S. Oil Consumption.
- The U.S. Consumes nearly 655 million gallons per day, or 2.3 gallons for every man, woman and child in transportation alone!
Peak Oil
The supply and production rate of crude oil follows a bell-shaped curve. Oil is increasingly plentiful on the upslope of the bell curve, and increasingly scarce & expensive on the downslope. The peak of the curve is the point at which oil production reaches the highest amount it ever has and ever will.
A bell-shaped production curve, as suggested by M. King Hubbert in 1956.
