Why isn't bio-diesel more popular than it is?

Question

I have heard good things about this alternative fuel but proponents say that it has no drawbacks. Is that just being overly passionate or is there something about it that I don't hear. Why is ethanol recieving all the attention as a great gasoline substitute. From the things I heard about ethanol it's much closer to gas than bio-diesel. Please set me straight.

Answer 1

There have been a lot of good, accurate answers to this question already.  The main reason biodiesel isn't very popular is that diesel cars in general are very uncommon in the U.S.  On top of that, there are very few (but some) gas stations with biodiesel fuel pumps.  It's possible for a person to make his own biodiesel, but it takes a little effort.

Another thing to keep in mind is that biodiesel DOES have one major drawback - reliance on agricultural resources for fuel.  Corn prices have gone up as ethanol has become more popular, and the same problem will occur with the crops used to produce biodiesel as its popularity increases.  We would also have to use more water, land, fertilizer, etc. to increase production of these crops if biodiesel consumption were to increase significantly.

It would benefit us to have a proportion of US transportation fueled by biodiesel (mainly due to low CO2 emissions), but we would need to use a combination of technologies, such as hybrids and electrics as well.

Answer 2

Ethanol can be grown in an oversized backyard. How many restaurants are there compared to how many diesel cars? Where do you get the stuff? Grow your own soybeans? Then there's producing enough oil to drive on at home... Maybe they just need to put the answers out there. If you have a diesel car, go for it! Do the research, and share, share, share!

Answer 3

Actually I was wondering why the US government goes toward ethanol and not biodiesel.

As I studied also reciprocical engines, I know that a regular car can´t beat the mileage of a diesel car because diesel does not self ignite, allowing a higher compression rate... this leads to a higher efficiency.

Moreover diesel is much safer to handel. The Diesel motor is nevertheless more expensive. It has higher particular emissions which means it has its advantage in sparsely populated areas (e.G: USA).

The graph I have seen from the EPA where faked as they compared cogeneration bioethanol refineries vs. regular biodiesel refineries.

Biodiesel is so much easier to produce and motors can nowadays run on refined vegetable oil. The shift to esthers is nevertheless good since the product will not decay as fast.

Answer 4

Biodiesel is a promising fuel.  It is only just beginning to become widely available here in Arkansas.  It is very popular with the farmers and ranchers because they can make it themselves.  Unfortunately, they cannot sell it to the public because they can't get it certified as a motor fuel.  You have to be an oil company to do that.  How convenient for the big oil companies!  Anyway, the biggest reason biodiesel isn't popular is that diesel cars are not really popular in the United States.  Most Americans associate diesel cars with some of the truly awful Oldsmobiles and Buicks that offered it as an option in the 80's, or the smokey, noisy, and severely underpowered VW Rabbit from the same time period.  A fortunate few were lucky enough to have the good old Mercedes 300D.  These cars would last for one million miles and many are still on the road today.  Newer cars like the VW Jetta TDI are great and get mpg's that rival hybrids, but they will require some revisions to meet the tough new EPA standards.  Fortunately, the TDI is already "old" technology in Germany, so we should be seeing the new and improved ones soon.  So where are the American automakers in all this?  Left out, of course.  They decided not to participate in the hybrid revolution.  The flexible fuel vehicles are bogus, since ethanol isn't even available in most of the country.  FFV's were a way for rich people to get tax breaks for driving a Chevy Subdivision that will never be run on anything but gasoline.

Answer 5

Because bio deisel will be the down fall of our great nation.

Our petrodiesel burden is to be replaced with Bio-fuels a problem for the future. Diesel-powered cars generally produce about 69% of the greenhouse gases. An advantage of bio-fuel is its potential to significantly reduce most regulated exhaust emissions, including particulate matter (PM), with the exception of nitrogen oxides (NOx) which is increased. Nitrogen oxides contribute to acid rain, smog, and respiratory problems, and have an indirect impact on global climate change. While this replacement will reduce the majority of emission the nitrogen oxides (NOx) are increased, and will create new problems for years to come.

Bio-fuel productions are ineffective because of the time spent to produce the needed resources as well as vital resource consumption such as food and water. Bio-fuels are made from corn, soybeans, flaxseed, rapeseed, sugar cane, palm oil and jatropha. These items are food when used for anything else, you consumer the second most important necessity besides water and that is food. Producing the crops from seed to finished produce for production of bio-fuels consumes water, land and time anywhere from 3-8 months assuming no natural disasters occur which in 2002 alone have dramatically increased to approximately 700 natural disasters worldwide. That is 50 more than we experienced between 1990 to 2000. Bio-fuel production is ineffective because they deplete the top two necessities of life food and water, plus they are dependent upon an crop which require predictable weather where as the alternative only depend on motion or heat from sun, wind and water.

Bio-fuels for vehicles are given tax breaks by government because they have a controllable commodity factor unlike alternatives electric vehicles.  Advanced diesel hybrid vehicles have a tax break incentives that can be as much as $5,000 per vehicle. Bio fuels can be produced at home but filling a 25-gallon tank of an SUV with pure ethanol (bio fuel) requires over 450 pounds of corn. Based on bio fuels resource consumption the average American is unable to produce the needed amount of corn to satisfy their fuel or power requirements thus making Bio fuels a controllable commodity funded by the government through tax breaks.  

The general public is losing money two way so Government can created a high price cash crop used to produce bio fuels. Bio fuels include corn and soybeans, primarily in the United States. In 2005 the U.S. government gave corn subsidies which equalled $8.9 billion. Also, global ethanol production was 9.66 billion gallons, of which the united States 44.5 percent from corn. The United States accounts for some 40 percent of the world's total corn production and over half of all corn exports. In March 2007, corn futures rose to over $4.38 a bushel, the highest level in ten years since a drought year. Livestock in Iowa consumed about 550 million bushels of corn making the price of our foods increase in every area. Bio fuels have tied oil and food prices together in ways that could profoundly upset the relationships between food producers, consumers, and nations in the years ahead.

Demand for Bio fuel will inevitably cause inflation or the devaluation of our currency. Bio fuel demands will bring 2007 inventories of corn to their lowest levels since 1995 (a drought year), even though 2006 yielded the third-largest corn crop on record. The climate effects on corn yields can only be explained by variations in rainfall and temperature. A bi-product of Bio fuel from corn is nitrogen oxides which contribute to acid rain and has an indirect impact on global climate change. Acid Rain depletes minerals from the soil and then it stunts the growth of the plant. The bio fuel bi-product will create hazardous environment for future bio fuel crop production this will result in crop depletion which will increase their cost causing inflation this will wipe out the value of our hard earned dollar.

Answer 6

Bio diesel is not a gasoline replacement. It is a diesel replacement. If your car is a diesel, then it can use bio diesel. If you have a regular gasoline car, it can't. Putting diesel in a gasoline engine will ruin it. All the big trucks are diesel powered. So are railroad locomotives and many large ships. diesel cars are more popular in Europe than in America. As for why more diesel isn't the bio kind, I think it is a shortage of the raw materials to make it. No problem for a few people to make a few gallons of their own by collecting dirty fryer oil from restaurants, but there isn't enough dirty fryer oil in the world to fuel even one large city worth of diesel cars.

Answer 7

It takes a diesel engine to run biodiesel.  And diesels in the US make up about 1% of the passenger cars, and in the past couple years the two biggest diesel car manufacturers: Mercedes and Volkswagen weren't allowed to sell diesels in the US for emissions reasons.  

You still can't buy a VW diesel, and Mercedes just released the E320 Diesel after not selling any diesels in the US since 1999!

So it is hard to advertise a product, when you have few people to buy it.

With recent advancements in biofuel oil from algae production, biodiesel truly has no drawbacks.  

As long as particulate emissions and NOx levels can be contained with exhaust traps/filters or reduction in combustion temperatures, this appears to have the biggest promise as a future cost efficient alternative to gasoline.

Answer 8

That's a great question. Biodiesel is better for the environment than regular diesel as it produces 60% less  CO2 emissions

Many people are on board with the biodiesel idea, but there are some "drawbacks." One, biodiesel has a higher solvency than diesel, meaning it cleans the junk out of the engine better. Some have experienced clogged fuel injectors due to the junk being removed. To combat this, the fuel filter must be changed more frequently.

Some of the varieties of biodiesel, including straight vegetable oils or waste vegetable oils, require a conversion of the fuel injection system of a vehicle. The extra time required to install and maintain this system could be a factor in a lackluster growth.

Another reason is that biodiesel generally contains a small amount of water. This water can cause problems for a car, including:

Water reduces the heat of combustion of the bulk fuel. This means more smoke, harder starting, less power.

Water causes corrosion of vital fuel system components: fuel pumps, injector pumps, fuel lines, etc.

Water freezes and frozen biodisel can accumulate.

A damp environment provides a nice place for small things to microscopic creatures to grow.

Finally, the idea of biodiesel strikes some people as too fringe. The culture is moving towards biodiesel, but many people still associate Willie Nelson and others with biodiesel and shy away from the "hippie-tree-hugger" idea of the biodiesel user.

Hope that helps.

Answer 9

.hybrid cars do not save like they say they do and cost a lot to fix if breakdown occurs . bio is a( regular car if you will )and can cost less to fix.and mechanics are not as available for hybrid as common car mechanics. and bio gas is not available in many stations yet so in time they will be more popular than hybrid im shure.