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Biodiesel
Fuel
What is Biodiesel?
Biodiesel
is a renewable diesel fuel substitute. It can be made from a variety of
natural oils and fats.
Biodiesel
is made by chemically combining any natural oil or fat with an alcohol
such as methanol or ethanol. Methanol has been the most commonly used
alcohol in the commercial production of biodiesel.
In
Europe, biodiesel is widely available in both its neat form (100%
biodiesel, also known as B100) and in blends with petroleum diesel.
European biodiesel is made predominantly from rapeseed oil (a cousin of
canola oil).
In
the United States, initial interest in producing and using biodiesel
has focused on the use of soybean oil as the primary feedstock mainly
because the United States is the largest producer of soybean oil in the
world.
Why Biodiesel?
Proponents
of biodiesel as a substitute for diesel fuel (in blends or in its neat
form) can point to a number of potential advantages for biodiesel that
could support a number of strategies for addressing national issues,
such as:
Reducing
dependence on foreign petroleum…
Petroleum
imports are at record levels in the United States, and will continue to
rise as domestic supplies
of oil shrink. US transportation sector relies almost exclusively on
petroleum as a source of energy. This is due to the high level of
demand for gasoline and diesel fuel.
Biodiesel
can be
produced domestically from agricultural oils and from waste fats and
oils.
With
its ability to
be used directly in existing diesel engines, biodiesel offers the
immediate potential to reduce our
demand for petroleum
in the
transportation sector.
Leveraging
limited supplies of fossil fuels….
Regardless of whose perspective one chooses to believe on the future
supply of coal, oil and natural
gas, it is
indisputable
that the supply of these fuels is, ultimately, limited. Biodiesel has the potential to leverage
our
use of limited supplies of fossil fuels.
Mitigating
greenhouse gas emissions….
The burning of fossil fuels over the past century has dramatically
increased the levels of carbon dioxide
(CO2) and other
“greenhouse gases” that trap heat in our
atmosphere. The implications of the increasing levels of
these
greenhouse gases are a matter of serious debate. What is not questioned is that the
levels of
these greenhouse gases have risen at unprecedented rates in the context of geological
time. To
the extent that biodiesel is truly renewable, it could play a role in reducing greenhouse gas
emissions from the transportation sector.
Reducing
Air
Pollution and Related Public Health Risks….
One of EPA’s primary charges is to reduce public health risks
associated with environmental pollution.
Biodiesel can
play a
role in reducing emissions of many air pollutants, especially those targeted by EPA in urban
areas.
These include emissions of particulate matter (PM), carbon monoxide (CO),
hydrocarbons
(HC), sulfur oxides (SOx), nitrogen oxides (NOx) and air toxics.
Benefiting
our domestic economy….
Spending on foreign imports of petroleum send dollars out of our
economy. Biodiesel offers the potential to shift this spending from
foreign imports to domestically produced energy. It also offers new
energy-related markets to farmers.
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