Biodiesel Series- What is it?

This is the first post in a series of four posts to be released every Thursday in August.

 What is Biodiesel?

According to the Alternative Fuels Data Center (AFDC), “Biodiesel is a domestically produced, renewable fuel that can be manufactured from vegetable oils, animal fats, or recycled restaurant grease. It is a cleaner-burning replacement for petroleum diesel fuel. It is nontoxic and biodegradable.” Biodiesel is also less expensive, but will achieve almost identical gas mileage as it’s non-renewable counterpart.

Why use Biodiesel?

Biodiesel is domestically produced, which lowers our dependence on imported fuel and increases our own economy. Biodiesel is produced using plants or used materials that would otherwise be thrown away. This allows biodiesel to be a renewable resource and also decrease pollution. For more reasons, please see Top 10 Reasons Smart Customers Are Using Biodiesel. Additionally, for guidelines for use please consult the Biodiesel Guidlines.

What cars are available?

Almost every vehicle that runs on diesel can run on biodiesel. For a full list of vehicles that run on diesel and the biodiesel that they can run on, can be seen here. The light duty vehicles begin on page 5 and the medium-and-heavy duty begin on page 18.

 

Sounds great! What next?

More information on Biodiesel can be found on the National Biodiesel Board’s website.There will be three more posts with more information and projects on biodiesel that will be released every Thursday in August, so keep your eyes open for them!