Is the biofuel, biodiesel being used in cars yet or even close to?

Question

Is the biofuel, biodiesel being used in cars yet or even close to?

Answer 1

Both of them had started being used in USA,but especially usage is predicted in Europe.

Answer 2

Oh, there are some niche players and do-it-yourselfers who make biofuels and use it in their cars NOW!  Some modifications to the autos are usually required for such conversion (whether the car burns gasoline or diesel).  However, there can never be enough supply of biofuels to become a viable alternative to petroleum fuels.

The manufacturing capability of biofuels will ALWAYS be insignificant in comparison with the total gasoline and diesel fuel demand.  There are logistic difficulties too so do not expect biofuels to be other than a partial substitution of petroleum-based fuel (e.g., 10 or 15 percent of the gasoline).  This is not to say there won't be any 100% biofuels, but it will be a niche market.

Unfortunately, there are shortcomings of today's biofuels.  The most common biofuel is ethanol, which is made from corn.  It can not be readily transported other than by truck due to its water absorption characteristics and the volume of ethanol production is insufficient for a dedicated pipeline throughout the U.S.  Realistically, the future of ethanol from corn is limited since it competes with the demand for corn as a food source (and raises the price due to the higher demand) and it is not really as "green" as it seems.  Corn consumes a lot of water, too.

The sustainable future for biofuels in the U.S. will be in non-food sources.  Such considerations of alternative sources are switch grass, waste from wood products at mills (e.g., wood chips and sawdusts), or algae.  However, the process of converting these products into biofuels has yet to be achieved biologically and economically.  A commercial breakthrough for a non-food source biofuel will happen, but it may take another ten years before this happens.  It will happen, but it will only serve as a supplement, not a replacement, of petroleum-based fuels, because we are going to need all types of energy sources to meet the demand for energy.

Answer 3

Another problem with "biodiesel" is that it produces less energy per unit volume than petroleum, therefore, more of it is necessary to obtain the same result.  (less mpg, for instance).  Producing diodiesel requires more energy to produce than it provides when it is burned.  It makes more sense economically and environmentally to use the petroleum available to us today (but which is politically unavailable - ie. Anwar)  Until the US gets over its ignorant bias toward Nuclear Power, there will be an increasing need for petroleum products, which biodiesel cannot even begin to meet.   (I know all that is not about cars, but the same principle applies.)

Answer 4

Yes, but there are significant global social, environmental, and climate impacts from the move towards biodiesel:

http://www.wrm.org.uy/subjects/biofuels/...

"The United States will not be able to produce sufficient biomass for biofuel domestically to satisfy its energy appetite. Instead, energy crops will be cultivated in the Global South. Large sugarcane, oil palm, and soy plantations are already supplanting forests and grasslands in Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, Ecuador, and Paraguay. Soy cultivation has already resulted in the deforestation of 21 million hectares of forests in Brazil, 14 million hectares in Argentina, two million hectares in Paraguay and 600,000 hectares in Bolivia. In response to global market pressure, Brazil alone will likely clear an additional 60 million hectares of land in the near future (Bravo 2006)."

"Conclusions

The energy crisis—driven by over-consumption and peak oil—has provided an opportunity for powerful global partnerships between petroleum, grain, genetic engineering, and automotive corporations. These new food and fuel alliances are deciding the future of the world’s agricultural landscapes. The biofuels boom will further consolidate their hold over our food and fuel systems and allow them to determine what, how and how much will be grown, resulting in more rural poverty, environmental destruction and hunger. The ultimate beneficiaries of the biofuel revolution will be grain merchant giants, including Cargill, ADM and Bunge; petroleum companies such as BP, Shell, Chevron, Neste Oil, Repsol and Total; car companies such as General Motors, Volkswagen AG, FMC-Ford France, PSA Peugeot-Citroen and Renault; and biotech giants such as Monsanto, DuPont, and Syngenta.

The biotech industry is using the current biofuel fever to greenwash its image by developing and deploying transgenic seeds for energy, not food production. Given the increasing public mistrust for and rejection of transgenic crops as food, biotechnology will be used by corporations to improve their image claiming that they will develop new genetically modified crops with enhanced biomass production or that contain the enzyme alfa-amilase which will allow the ethanol process to begin while the corn is still in the field—a technology they claim has no negative impacts on human health. The deployment of such crops into the environment will add one more environmental threat to those already linked to GMO corn which in 2006 reached 32.2 million hectares: the introduction of new traits into the human food chain as has already occurred with Starlink corn and rice LL601."

"Clearly, the ecosystems of areas in which biofuel crops are being produced are being rapidly degraded, and biofuel production is neither environmentally and socially sustainable now nor in the future.

It is also worrisome that public universities and research systems (i.e. the recent agreement signed by BP and the University of California-Berkeley) are falling prey to the seduction of big money and the influence of politics and corporate power. In addition to the implications of the intrusion of private capital on the shaping of the research agenda and faculty composition—that erodes the public mission of universities in favor of private interests—it serves as an attack against academic freedom and faculty governance. These partnerships divert universities from engaging in unbiased research and preclude intellectual capital from exploring truly sustainable alternatives to the energy crisis and climate change."

Answer 5

Here in Wales UK "Sundance" makes biodiesal out of the local chip shops waste oil.  Only problem is it is not good for my car as it doesn't like fuel injection systems and I had to put "RedX" in to make it start again.  But I did try and that is the key, isn't it?

Answer 6

Biofuels, including biodiesel, are used in some cars in this country, but their use is not widespread.

Harleigh Kyson Jr.

Answer 7

On biodiesel my mileage goes from 30 hwy to 34.

Answer 8

We have a diesel SUV with no modifications and we use B20 (20% biodiesel). The problem is that not everywhere in the country sells it.

I think biofuels will break out on the market in a big way over the next 5 years, especially because oil prices will continue to rise, but we are not quite there yet.

Answer 9

I first put a tank of biodiesel in my car in N. Dakota in 2004.  I bought the fuel at a commercial gas station, not a speciality store.