With the craze for Biodiesel ramping up, especially for used cooking oil. I would like to know what happens

Question

when all the cooking oil is used up. The supply of U.S. cooking oil isn't as big as our petroleum supplies. Our agriculture system can't keep up with it either. Remember how the cost of food went up when we converted part of our corn crops to ethanol production? It will happen with the cooking oil too.

Answer 1

Much of the biodiesel made now comes from virgin oil, not used cooking oil.  That's part of the reason it's so expensive.

Hannah's grandpa: We don't make biodiesel from corn, it's usually made from soy.  Also, corn oil makes up a small percentage of our cooking oil.

But yes, if biodiesel is adopted in large quantities, it has the potential to increase food prices.

Answer 2

you hit it on the head,you can't have food and make fuel out of it too,you sir are a rational thinker...........tom

Answer 3

in the first place, the price of food never went up because we started converting corn into bio-diesel.

the reason the price of food went up was the price of diesel went up, thereby increasing the cost of transportation.

that is the reason why they started converting corn into biodiesel in the first place.

And U.S. cooking oil is also make from corn, which means that it is a renewable resource.

And only makes sense to convert it into a usable product instead of dumping it.

Answer 4

Biodiesel has hit 7.00 per gallon where I am at. That is what happens.

Answer 5

We have megatons of plant material in the oceans that can be harvested to be used as bio-fuel. What is happening first is people are latching onto easily available at low cost materials. As those become scarce (they already have) we will see people start to go for more difficult or more costly sources, like ocean plant matter,

Now if we were to go too far with that, we would hit the wall again.

But just now we have so much plant matter in the oceans that we can harvest as much fuel as we use without causing animal life in the oceans to suffer. Rather, they are suffering now from having too much plant matter decomposing in the oceans, and so creating dead zones.

Answer 6

Do not be too hard on them, as I think the Arabs will use it as a weapon against US.

Answer 7

That is true. The problem with commercial Biodiesel is that it will cause the rise in prices of food. That is one BIG minus point.

However, we cannot ignore the fact that Biodiesel IS one of the best alternative fuel.

That aside, remember that we can make Biodiesel AT HOME. That's why I say the problem is with COMMERCIAL BIODIESEL. If you make it at home, it's a different story.

I know of a people who buys waste cooking oil from a Chinese restaurant and convert it into Biodiesel.

Now that's a smart choice.

Answer 8

Used cooking oil can only make a small dent in the replacement of petroleum.  Only an idiot would pay $7.00/gallon for biodiesel when petrodiesel is about $4.60/gallon.