Engineering Biodiesel in America

In the past several years, we have all witnessed the extreme rise in the price of oil, and we have seen what impact it has had on gas prices and everything else related to transportation.  With this intense climb in oil and gas prices, we became more aware of the need for an alternative, reusable energy solution.  While the push has been made to develop cars that run on electricity and E85, another solution that holds immense possibilities is the development of biodiesel.  Agricultural engineering plays an immense role in the development of such a fuel source, both from the research and development side of things, as well as from the production of the crops used.  In order for this field to continue to advance, society needs to more fully understand and grasp the concept of renewable biofuels and be willing to take the necessary steps to make such an energy source a more common and effective reality.

What is Biodiesel?

Biodiesel is a fuel solution that can be produced completely domestically.  It is a renewable fuel source that is manufactured from vegetable oils, fatty acids, and even recycled grease from restaurants.  This alternative to petroleum-based fuels has similar physical properties to regular petroleum fuels, but is non-toxic and biodegradable, as well as being cleaner burning than regular diesel fuel.

Advantages of Biodiesel

As already mentioned, biodiesel is a renewable energy source that can be produced completely domestically, reducing the country’s reliance on the importing of foreign oil.  This means that our nation’s own farmers would be responsible for giving us a reliable energy solution, which would help to bolster the United States’ economy while reducing money being spent on foreign energy sources.  Being a cleaner burning fuel than regular petroleum diesel also means that the use of biodiesel can greatly reduce the omissions of greenhouse gasses. 

B20, a blend of 20% biodiesel and 80% petroleum diesel, is the most commonly used blend of biodiesel in the United States.  B20 avoids the potential cold weather issues of B100 (100% biodiesel with no petroleum diesel blended in) while still providing benefits.  One advantage of B20 is that it is already compatible with most diesel engines as well as storage and distribution equipment.  While the potential for less energy per gallon does exist with biodiesel as compared to petroleum diesel, most users have reported no noticeable difference in fuel economy between the two.

Disadvantages of Biodiesel

The development of biodiesel is a very energy-intensive process, which leads to high costs throughout the process.  High costs have deterred mainstream industrialization in many cases.  Some would say that the biodiesel industry is not worth the cost because of the high development expense compared to the smaller amount of energy that biofuel provides compared to petroleum based fuels.  Another fear of biodiesel production, as pointed out by Kyle in the comment below, is that the production of tis biodiesel requires the use of crops that could also be used for food sources.  If too great an amount of these crops is removed from the food industry for the sake of biodiesel development, market prices of food and food crops could be driven higher.  

What is the Next Step?

With B20 already being commonly produced, it has become a major export, mainly to Europe.  The United States itself needs to embrace biodiesel in order to take the next steps towards renewable energy.  U.S. consumers need to be made more aware of this solution, and its implementation in domestic infrastructure should be increased.  The ability to effectively and economically distribute biodiesel is also a point that needs attention.  So far, biodiesel is transported and distributed by truck, barge, and rail line from production to retailers and end users.  The more economical choice of pipeline distribution for biodiesel is still in the experimental stages of development.

Going beyond the use of B20 is the development the development of effective and efficient B100.  At this point the use of B100 has been restricted to professionally fleets prepared to deal with the concerns that face the product.  Such concerns include low temperature gelling of the fuel, incompatibility with many current diesel engines, lower energy content per gallon, microbial contamination, and increased nitrogen oxide emissions.  These are all issues that can eventually be dealt with, but engineers are going to need time and resources for such a process.  To  continue developing this energy solution, America needs to know about its benefits and how to help take the next step in achieving the goals of a clean, renewable energy solution.