What is biodiesel and how can we use it?

Question

What is biodiesel?

How is it produced?

How can we use it?

Can we make it at home?

What is the future of biodiesel?

I read an article about biodiesel a few days ago..Just wondering :-S

Answer 1

Bio Diesel is fuel produced from the organic oil's, animal fats etc.

Well if you want to make bio diesel which is different then using it in a SVO system, you need to filter the oil and heat it to about 120 degrees, to prevent the oil from getting thick or lumpy. then mix in lye (sodium hydroxide) and methanol to start the transesterification. you should get bio diesel on top and glycerin on bottom. this is just a quick overview you should go to http://www.biodieselmake.com/ it gives a better set of instructions. I make it using used cooking oil, but almost any form of organic oil will work. as for any modifications if you are using Bio diesel and not a SVO ( straight vegetable oil) then you most likely do not need to modify your vehicle. But Bio diesel.org will be able to help you know for sure.

You can use it in any diesel engine but you may have to replace some fuel lines if you have  an  older diesel motor because bio diesel is a pretty good solvent and can degrade older fuel lines.

If you have a cheap source of oil you can make bio diesel cheaper than buying regular diesel at the pump. I get my oil from some fast food  places for free and most places are willing to get rid of it .You can look up plans at biodiesel.org if you are interested in making it at home. If you buy biodiesel at the pump and sometimes you can find it, it will most likely be higher than regular diesel.

Well I believe biodiesel is the future fuel. Very little modification if any is required to your car or truck. If we use algae as a source for the oil I think we can make it work. Algae can produces 1000's of gallons of biodiesel per acre.

Answer 2

Visit this web page to know the answer for your questions http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biodiesel

Answer 3

Like ethanol, bio diesel has the limitation that we must use up land that could be used to produce food.

Soy bio-diesel is a byproduct from a process that delivers a lot of good food. But it too is very limited. We can not run all our vehicles on it.

We can convert vegetation from the oceans into bio-diesel. This might come close to supplying our needs. be prepared if it too comes up too little.

Answer 4

Its oil from vegetables, trees or sugarbeat. When burnt it produces less emissions than diesel, hence the hype over it.

However, to produce the crops in the quantities required to replace diesel you have to dedicate millions of acres of farmland to their production - land that was formerly used for food production, driving up world food prices.

Also, the industrial nature of these huge biofuel farms means far more emissions are produced harvesting the crop than is saved by burning it.

The ONLY benefits to using biofuel are:

- When using recycled vegetable fat from restaurants

- Using fuel grown on your own land.

- Less reliance on imports from unreliable regions (opec).

Answer 5

Bio-diesel comes from plant fats like peanut oil or cooking oil. U must filter it to remove all grains ,so it will not plug your injectors.

Answer 6

Bio-diesel is a fuel made from fats of either animal or vegetable origin.  It is most commonly produced by a process known as transesterification, which replaces the glycerine in the fats with three methanol molecules.  The resulting product is known a mixture of Fatty Acid Methyl Esters (FAME).  FAME can be burned in any diesel engine, but it has a much higher solvency than petroleum distillate based diesel, so its use may be limited in older engines due to its potential for damaging certain plastics used in their fuel system.

The process for making bio-diesel via transesterification is fairly simple, and limited quantities can be produced in you home.  It does, however, involve some fairly dangerous chemicals (NaOH and methanol) so you need to make sure you use proper technique and wear proper protective equipment.  There are several steps involved.

Bio-diesel can also be produced by hydroprocessing of fats via a fairly common refinery process.  This produces a hydrocarbon diesel that is essentially the same as diesel produced from petroleum.  As it is chemically the same, it can be used in unlimited quantities in any diesel engine.

Regardless of the process used, bio-diesel is currently more expensive to produce than conventional diesel fuel and this will likely limit it use.