Are Biodiesels the Solution to Our Energy Problems

In recent times [tag]biodiesels[/tag] have been advertised as the answer to all of the energy problems of the United States and other developed countries. What biological resources offer is:

* Cheaper fuel
* Cleaner air
* A renewable fuel source
* A homegrown fuel alterative, allowing the United States to become free from its over-dependence on foreign oil.

What Are Biodiesel Fuels?

Biodiesel is a fuel for vehicles of all kinds such as cars, trucks, buses and other such means of transportation. The renewable fuels are actually made from fatty acid alkylesters which can be gotten from vegetable oil, soybean oil, animal fats and other products such as recycled restaurant grease. It is safe in a lot of ways and can be handled, stored and transported easily.

What Are Its Benefits

If these renewable fuels are used in its pure form it makes for a fuel that burns much more cleanly and emits a lesser number of air pollutants. Biofuels also help in the reduction of dangerous emissions of different hydrocarbons, sulfates, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, carbon monoxide and nitrated aromatic hydrocarbons. It also protects from other forms of particulate matter that tend to enter the air with the use of petroleum based fuels.

Scientific researchers currently believe that carbon dioxide alone is one of the major causative factors of greenhouse gasses which are linked in turn to global warming. The use of 100% biodiesel fuels is able to reduce the effects of dangerous greenhouse gases by as much as 75%.

The environment alone isn’t the sole beneficiary of the use of bioogical fuel resources. Humans also benefit from the use of biodiesels. These sorts of fuels are better for both our lungs as well as our hearts; they also smell better to burn than diesel smoke.

Who Can Use Biodiesel Fuel?

A lot of these renewable fuel sources are currently available in one form or the other today. A number of gasoline stations today offer fuel that is partly a mixture of about 80% petroleum and about 20% biodiesels. The consensus however is that a whole lot more has to be done in order to provide fuels that are completely made of naturally renewable resources to the general public.

Quite unlike most people think, most vehicles that were built after 1994 can handle biological fuels; some of them require some little modifications while others require none at all. No special fuel pumps or filling stations are necessary and fuel can actually be made rather quickly and efficiently as well.

The soybean industry has been one of the proponents of biodiesel fuel for a long time now. The strong points in favor of biodiesel fuels are the positive effects it has on the environment and the nation’s economy. The recent surveys conducted by the United States Department of Energy have shown that enough food exists to make approximately 2 billion gallons of biological based fuel.

The cost of biodiesels is quite negligible and soybean oil which is the more popular ingredient for biodiesels is the most expensive at 20 cents a pound. The total costs of producing 1 gallon of fuel based on soybean oil costs just a lot less than $1.50 per gallon. By using recycled fats and grease you spend even less at a little more than a dollar per gallon to make.

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