What is bio-diesel?

Biodiesel refers to any diesel-equivalent Biofuel made from renewable biological materials such as vegetable oils (Vegetable Oil from Wikipedia) or animal fats (Animal Fats fro Wikipedia). While there are numerous interpretations being applied to the term biodiesel, the term Biodiesel usually refers to an ester, or an oxygenate, made from the oil and methanol (in other words, the name ‘‘biodiesel’’ can be applied to any transesterified vegetable oil that makes it suitable for use as a diesel fuel).

(See The Biodiesel Basics from Biodiesel America for a nice introduction on this topic, What is Biodiesel?)

Technically, as mentioned earlier, biodiesel is vegetable oil methyl ester (Esters & Fatty Acid Methyl Esters – from Wikipedia), or in general one could say that biodiesel consists what are called mono alkyl-esters (Alkyl Esters – Specs & Specification Charts – from Rohm Hass). It is usually produced by a Transesterification and esterification (Esters & Esterification – from Aus-Tute) reaction of vegetable or waste oil respectively with a low molecular weight alcohol, such as Ethanol (Ethanol from Journey to Forever) and methanol (Methanol – from UCC, Ireland). During this process, the triglyceride (Triglyceride – from Wikipedia) molecule from vegetable oil is removed in the form of glycerin (soap). Once the glycerin is removed from the oil, the remaining molecules are, to a diesel engine, somewhat similar to those of petroleum diesel fuel. There are some notable differences though. While the petroleum and other fossil fuels contain sulfur, ring molecules & aromatics (Aromatics Online), the biodiesel molecules are very simple hydrocarbon chains, containing no sulfur, ring molecules or aromatics. Biodiesel is thus essentially free of sulfur and aromatics. Biodiesel is made up of almost 10% oxygen, making it a naturally "oxygenated" fuel.

 The concept of using vegetable oil as a fuel dates back to 1895 when Dr. Rudolf Diesel (Rudolf Diesel – from Hemp Car) developed the first diesel engine to run on vegetable oil. Diesel demonstrated his engine at the World Exhibition in Paris in 1900 using peanut oil as fuel.

Bio-diesel can be used in diesel engines either as a standalone or blended with petro diesel. Much of the world uses a system known as the "B" factor to state the amount of biodiesel in any fuel mix. For example, fuel containing 20 % biodiesel is labeled B20. Pure biodiesel is referred to as B100.

• Diesel Engines vs. Gasoline Engines in Automobiles
• Difference between Gasoline & Diesel Engines – Mad Scientist 
  

Similar to biofuels, biodiesel can be derived from the triglycerides (fats) of either plants or animals, though a very large percetange of biodiesel is today derived from plant oils. Let’s call the plant-based bio-diesel as botadiesel, and the animal-based biodiesel as zoodiesel.

Botadiesel

As mentioned earlier, plant oils form the feedstock for a very large percentage of the biodiesel in use today. While the most popular plant oils in this regard are from sunflower, soybeans, jatropha, corn, canola, safflower & rapeseed oil, experiments are going on for many more plants to check if their oils could be suitable candidates for biodiesel. More information on the various plant oils that can be used for biodiesel are given in a later section.

Zoodiesel

Biodiesel from animal fat is much less prevalent than biodiesel from the plant counterparts, but a good amount of research is going on in this area. A few studies suggest that biodiesel from animal fats could cost significantly less (about 20%) than that from plant oils because animal fat is cheaper than fats from plant oils. Some links on the use of animal fat as biodiesel:

·         KMB Tests Biodiesel from Pork Fat – Joruney to Forever

·         Biodiesel Produced from Animal Fat in Styria (PDF)

·         Any Downside to Using Animal Fat for Biodiesel? – Biodiesel Now Forums

·         Animal Fats Perform Well in Biodiesel – Render Magazine (PDF)

·         Safety of Animal Fats for Biodiesel Production – Critical Review of Literature (PDF)

Turkey Guts & Waste into Oil

 

SynDiesel

Biodiesel can also be obtained from thermal depolymerization of particular wastes (wastes from the meat processing industry, old tires, landfill biomass, etc.). This is not strictly biodiesel, since fuel produced under this category could also have non-biological origins. So, let’s call this SynDiesel.

Other Candidates for Biodiesel

·         Bio-Dimethyl Ether (Bio-DME): is promising fuel for diesel engines due to its combustion and emission properties and could become of great interest for very low GHG vehicles. It is similar to LPG (a mixture of propane and butane) in terms of physical characteristics and can be used as substitute for LPG or as oxygenated addictive in gasoline, as a blending component of diesel fuel in which it is easily soluble, or as diesel-fuel substitution for modified diesel engines. At present DME is produced from pure methanol by an acid catalyst.

 ·         To round off this section, a summary of the various entities that can be considered for blending with petro-diesel in diesel engines, or used alone ( as in pure biodiesel - B100):

·         Biodiesel: a methyl-ester produced from vegetable or animal oil, of diesel quality. This is what this page is all about.

·         Biodimethylether: dimethylether produced from biomass

·         Fischer Tropsh: Fischer Tropsh produced from biomass

·         Cold pressed bio-oil: oil produced from oil seed through mechanical processing only

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About Oilgae - Oilgae - Oil & Biodiesel from Algae has a focus on biodiesel production from algae while also discussing alternative energy in general. Algae present an exciting possibility as a feedstock for biodiesel, and when you realise that oil was originally formed from algae - among others - you think "Hey! Why not oil again from algae!"

To facilitate exploration of oil production from algae as well as exploration of other alternative energy avenues, Oilgae provides web links, directory, and related resources for algae-based biofuels / biodiesel along with inputs on new inventions, discoveries & breakthroughs in other alternative energy domains such as Solar Wind nuclear, hydro, Geothermal hydrogen & fuel cells, gravitational, geothemal, human-powered, ocean & Wave / Tidal energy.