Biodiesel Fuel Pros and Cons

The term biodiesel refers to the diesel fuel extracted from animal fats and plant matter, which is used to operate standard diesel engines. Owing to the fact that biodiesel is biodegradable and pollution free, it is considered to be one of the best alternative fuels available today. Although, its possible to produce biodiesel from animal fat, most of it is produced from plant oil. Popular crops used to produce biodiesel include soybean, canola, cottonseed, peanut and sunflower. At present, when we are on the verge of fossil fuel exhaustion, we seriously need to examine some of the major biodiesel fuel pros and cons, in order to check whether it has the capacity to replace fossil fuels as the major source of power generation or not. Read more on vegetable oil diesel.

Pros and Cons of Biodiesel

Like its other counterparts, biodiesel fuel also has its own advantages and disadvantages. The biggest advantage of biodiesel is that it can play a significant role in reducing the harmful carbon dioxide emissions. However, there do exist some drawbacks of biodiesel which may become a hindrance in the introduction of biodisel as an alternative to the harmful carbon emitting fossil fuels. Let's have a detailed look at the major biodiesel fuel pros and cons.

Biodiesel Fuel Pros
By far the biggest advantage of biodiesel fuel is that it is non toxic and biodegradable, which makes it one of the most environment friendly alternative of power generation. A study at the United States Department of Energy revealed that introduction of biodiesel fuel can reduce carbon dioxide emissions caused by burning fossil fuels by a whopping 75 percent. This fuel doesn't contain toxic chemicals, like sulfur, which are responsible for harmful emissions. In fact, hazards like acid rain can be eliminated forever by introducing biodiesel for our day to day use. You don't even have to modify the engine, as biodiesel fuel can easily operate a standard diesel engines. It can also double up as a lubricant, and help in lubricating the various parts of the engine, thus making it less vulnerable to wear and tear. It is much more safer than conventional diesel. More importantly, for a country like the United States, wherein a large part of oil required for power generation is imported, tapping the resources available within the country can help in boosting the economic strength of the nation to a great extent.

Biodiesel Fuel Cons
The energy content of biodiesel is 11 percent less than that of petroleum based diesel. This means the power generation capacity of the engine will decline considerably when biodiesel is used to power it. It is possible to modify the engine to eliminate this loss of power, but this modification goes against the EPA guidelines and hence cannot be executed. Owing to its poor oxidization qualities, bioldiesel can lead to some problems serious problems when stored. When stored for longer periods, biodiesel tends to turn to a gel like substance, which can lead to clogging of various engine parts. These biofuels may also lead to microbial growth, and thus cause some damage to the engine. As the use of biodiesel fuel will increase, more and more crops will have to be produced to satiate the requirement. This will lead to severe crisis wherein we will have to come up with one option, either food or fuel. The prices of various agricultural commodities will also soar. Due to over farming, the soil quality will also start depreciating and creating new areas to produce these crops will lead to destruction of natural habitat.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Biofuels

These were some of the major biodiesel fuel pros and cons, which should be taken into consideration before coming to any conclusion about the use of biodiesel as an alternative to fossil fuel. The pros and cons of biofuels are being scrutinized by the researchers all over the world, in order to make this fuel more efficient. As of now, we can just hope that their research yields results, and we get the best fuel, some time soon.

By Abhijit Naik

Cost to produce biodiesel

Biodiesel fuel is produced from animal fats or used vegetable oil that may be added to petroleum or replace entirely conventional diesel petroleum fuel. Almost all biodiesel in the United States is created from canola or soybean oils.
Blends of petroleum and biodiesel are assigned with letter “B,” then by the biodiesel volumetric percentage in the mixture, so that B20, which is the mixture most often assessed, contains 20% biodiesel then 80% petroleum diesel.

We're all now well aware of the beneficial effects of biodiesel but how much does it cost to produce biodiesel ?

By quite a few significant measures, biodiesel mixtures perform better compared to petroleum diesel, however its comparatively high cost of production and the restricted availability of a number of raw materials that is being utilized, biodiesel fuel production, which is about 3 times more as that of petroleum diesel, can not be applied commercially.
All companies that are at present producing biodiesel still employs a high temperature, high pressure, technique that is extremely costly and energy intensive.
Nevertheless, researchers are working constantly with the “biodiesel fuel” industry to decrease the production cost and be able to compete with petroleum diesel in next four to five years.

How much is the pump-up cost of biodiesel?

B100 (pure biodiesel) is two times higher compared to conventional diesel, whereas lower biodiesel mixtures show more reasonable increases. Biodiesel pump-up price varies from state to state and depends on the biodiesel source and its mixture percentage.
Most individuals who produce biodiesel regard their own biodiesel production as their hobby and only for their personal consumption.

How much can you save if you produce your own biodiesel?
Your instant savings for every gallon is about $1.50 which is the usual cost of petroleum diesel minus $0.70 which is the biodiesel production cost.

Biodiesel supplies cost

Used or waste cooking oil generally is widely available and for free from local restaurants, or may cost about 15 cents per pound.

Aside from the processing equipment initial cost, production of biodiesel costs also include chemical costs utilized in the process, electricity and expenses as well as your labor.
Lye costs about $5 a pound at hardware stores, but can be acquired for $3 per pound in bulk of 25 pounds a bag. You need will be needing approximately 1.5 pounds for every 40 gallons of biodiesel fuel.

Methanol (near pure) costs around $2.36 in bulk, a gallon, however, you need only 1/5 a gallon of methanol for each biodiesel gallon that you will produce or 8 gallons of methanol is required for 40 gallons of biodiesel.

Keep in mind however, that methanol cost varies considerably, depending where you obtain it. Methanol is considered a hazardous chemical, therefore shipping costs is expensive. In fact, 18 ounces of “sodium hydroxide” is can range from 7-8 dollars.

Reducing production costs of biodiesel

If you plan your biodiesel production volumes meticulously, you can acquire supplies such as lye and methanol in greater volumes so you can keep costs per-unit down.
Following a system to store and collect supplies in huge quantities will likewise lessen your transportation and labor time costs.

Biodiesel is growing in popularity and U.S. sales raised from 7,000,000 gallons in the year 2000, to 20,000,000 gallons in the year 2001. Currently, it is available in seven states.
By utilizing both waste grease and used “agricultural oils”, it is calculated that biodiesel production costs may be slashed down by 50 percent, thereby making biodiesel very reasonable and can compete with pure petroleum diesel.