Deep beneath the earth's crust, there
existed a vast ocean of black gold, the fuel that revolutionized the way
machines worked and the way people traveled. Since the discovery of vast oil
reserves, people had begun exploiting these wells without even thinking that it
cannot be replenished. Man had become so dependent on this fuel that he began
wondering what will happen when the last drop of it is used up. This is when
the scramble began to find out alternative fuels and one of the results was
Bio-diesel.
Bio-diesel
is nothing but trans-esterified lipids, or in layman terms, vegetable oil or
animal fat based diesel fuel. It is generally prepared chemically by reacting
oil with an alcohol. This fuel can be used as it is in diesel engines or can be
modified by blending it with existing fuels to create a better and a cleaner
fuel. This article is a brief description about Bio-diesel, its advantages as
an alternative fuel and the positive effect it has on the environment.
Bio-diesel
can be basically made from almost any plant derived oil or animal fat. It can
also be made from soyabean or any other vegetable oil. The chemical separation
of glycerin from these vegetable oils produces methyl esters or bio-diesel.
Even though, bio-diesel can be used in its purest form, blending it with
regular fuels is its most common usage in the current market. In its purest
form, referred to as B100, the current diesel engines require a slight
modification. But blends of 20 percent of bio-diesel with petroleum diesel can
be used in existing diesel engines with no modifications.
The
applications of bio-diesel are many. Apart from using them in on road diesel
vehicles, trains and air crafts have also started using blends of bio-diesel.
This includes the world’s first commercial news making flight of United
Airlines, which used 40 percent bio-diesel blended with 60 percent conventional
jet fuel. The famous park trains of Disneyland run on bio-diesel manufactured
from cooking oils used by them. Many of the domestic and commercial boilers
also use a mix of bio-diesel with heating oil as heating fuel. This is often
referred to as bio-heat.
