Biodiesel Oil

One of the most popular alternatives to fossil fuel is biodiesel, a renewable type of fuel that can be produced domestically. The fact is that diesel engines were originally designed to run on several types of fuels, such as peanut oil and vegetable oil Soybeans are a very popular biodiesel oil source, as almost 400,000 farmers in 29 states grow this type of crop, according Biodiesel.org. Still according to the organization, biodiesel offers higher lubricity than its fossil fuel counterpart and recent tests have showed a reduction in wear scar from 0.61mm to 0.35mm using just a 1% blend of biodiesel with the base diesel. Performance is also similar to engines running on pure, fossil diesel.

Some people use waste vegetable oil as biodiesel. This is called raw vegetable biodiesel oil. In such cases, the diesel engine needs to be converted to run on vegetable oil. Converting a vehicle is fairly simple but it takes a person with a flair for mechanics to do that, so it may be best to hire someone for the conversion job. Older diesel engines are better for conversion because they had fewer moving parts. The conversion job will cost around $3,000.

The drawback is that biodiesel raw oil vehicles are not legally recognized, because the raw vegetable oil (RVO) or recycled greases (waste cooking oil) are not processed into esters. The Environmental Protection Agency does not classify them as biodiesel and the agency offers no certification options in these cases. It claims more emissions research needs to be carried out in order to determine the real environmental impact these biodiesel oils have. Enforcement is rare, though, and few people have been fined for using vegetable or waste oil as biodiesel. In contrast, legal fuel-grade biodiesel is produced according to ASTM D6751 specifications, which raw vegetable oil does not meet. RVO enthusiasts say the underlying reasons for the illegal status of raw vegetable diesel oil stem from economics rather than environmental technicalities.

In July 2010 EPA announced it would require the domestic use of 800 million gallons of biodiesel in 2011 as part of a bigger drive that requires a renewable component in U.S. diesel fuel, according to a news release issued by Biodiesel.org.