What is biodiesel ?
Biodiesel is an alternative fuel similar to conventional or ‘fossil’ diesel. Biodiesel can be produced from straight vegetable oil, animal oil/fats, tallow and waste cooking oil. The process used to convert these oils to Biodiesel is called transesterification. The process is described in the image below:
Most biodiesel produced at present is produced from waste vegetable oil sourced from restaurants, chip shops, industrial food producers etc. Though oil straight from the pjk industry represents the greatest potential source it is not being produced commercially simply because the raw oil is too expensive.
What are the benefits of Biodiesel?
Biodiesel has many environmentally beneficial properties. The main benefit of biodiesel is that it can be described as ‘carbon neutral’. This effect occurs due to the fact that the oil crop absorbs the CO2 released during fuel combustion for its growth. This means that the fuel produces no net output of carbon in the form of carbon dioxide (CO2). Another feature of biodiesel is that it is biodegradable, which means it can decompose as the result of natural agents such as bacteria. Biodiesel degrades at a rate four times faster than conventional diesel fuel. As a result, the cleanup would be easier. It also reduces the country’s dependence on imported oil thereby increasing energy security. It also contributes to the lubricity of an engine. It acts as a solvent and loosens deposits or other junk present in the engine that could possibly clog. As pure biodiesel does not leave any deposits, it results in increased engine life. Biodiesel has several other key benefits that include the following:
- It is environment-friendly
- It is safer than conventional diesel
- It is non-toxic
- It has higher flashpoint than conventional diesel.
Applications
The following are some of the major applications of biodiesel:
- Vehicles – Biodiesel can be used to fuel on-road vehicles and also for off road construction, farm machinery and mining. It can also be used in hybrid electric vehicles.
- Agriculture adjuvants - Biodiesel is used as a carrier for fertilizer and pesticides in agricultural sprays as it is biodegradable and non-toxic.
- Boiler fuel – With the rising natural gas prices, biodiesel can be used as an alternative for natural with minor modifications required for the burner train.
- Lubricating agents/additives - Natura biodiesel can be used as a lubricity agent/enhancer in marine applications where contamination of water with petroleum lubricity agents can create problems. It can also be used as a lubricity additive due to its low sulfur level.
- Fuel additive – It can be used as a diesel fuel additive to maintain the pumps, injectors and other combustion components clean.
- Power generation - Biodiesel generators provide essential stand-by power during the times of power shortage. In addition, the increased lubricity of biodiesel generators has the potential to reduce engine deterioration.