Diesel Fuel Alternative

Many vehicles run on diesel fuel, but with the growing push toward environmentally safer fuels for vehicles, do diesel vehicle owners have any alternative other than diesel fuel?  Yes they do!  It’s called bio-diesel and it’s making a big splash in the fuel industry.

Bio-diesel is the name of a clean burning alternative fuel, produced from domestic, renewable resources. Bio-diesel contains no petroleum, but it can be blended at any level with petroleum diesel to create a bio-diesel blend. It can be used in compression-ignition (diesel) engines with little or no modifications. Bio-diesel is simple to use, biodegradable, nontoxic, and essentially free of sulfur and aromatics.

Bio-diesel fuel is produced from any fat or oil such as soybean oil as an alternative to petroleum-based fuel, through a refinery process called trans-esterification. This process is a reaction of the oil with an alcohol to remove the glycerin, which is a by-product of biodiesel production. 

Fuel-grade bio-diesel as an alternative fuel must be produced to strict industry specifications in order to insure proper performance. Bio-diesel is the only alternative fuel to have fully completed the health effects testing requirements of the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments. 

Bio-diesel fuel that meets the industry specifications for an alternative fuel is legally registered with the Environmental Protection Agency as a legal motor fuel for sale and distribution. Raw vegetable oil cannot meet bio-diesel fuel specifications, it is not registered with the EPA, and it is not a legal motor fuel.

Bio-diesel is the only alternative fuel to have fully completed the health effects testing requirements of the Clean Air Act. The use of bio-diesel in a conventional diesel engine results in substantial reduction of unburned hydrocarbons, carbon monoxide, and particulate matter compared to emissions from diesel fuel. In addition, the exhaust emissions of sulfur oxides and sulfates (major components of acid rain) from bio-diesel are essentially eliminated compared to regular diesel fuel.

Of the major exhaust pollutants, both unburned hydrocarbons and nitrogen oxides are ozone or smog forming precursors. The use of bio-diesel as an alternative fuel results in a substantial reduction of unburned hydrocarbons. Emissions of nitrogen oxides are either slightly reduced or slightly increased depending on the duty cycle of the engine and testing methods used. 

The use of bio-diesel fuel as an alternative to petroleum based fuel is really a step in the right direction when it comes to both environmental as well as monetary concerns.  It is safer, burns cleaner, and easy to make.  It’s a real breakthrough for those who use diesel fuel and a real alternative to regular diesel fuel.

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