Biodiesel, Making Biodiesel at home, Biodiesel expansion equipment

The word biodiesel is used to refer to a sort of diesel fuel that is not petroleum based. It consists of short chain alkyl esters. The short chain alkyl esters that mostly make up the biodiesels are either ethyl or methyl.

Biodiesel is manufactured by transesterifying either the animal fat or vegetable oil in automobiles that are driven by diesel that is not modified. The particular constituent is either used alone or it is combined with petrodiesel. Biodiesel is different from straight vegetable oil which is also known as waste vegetable oil, pure plant oil and unwashed biodiesel.

G. Chavanne of the University of Brussels in Belgium was provided with the Belgian Patent 422877 on the 31st of August, 1937 for transforming vegetable oils into fuels. This can be considered to be the origin of the biodiesels. Biodiesels may be used in their purest form B100. Biodiesels may also be combined with petrodiesel in any amount as far as the present day diesel engines are concerned. The solvent properties of biodiesel are different from that of petrodiesel.

In the recent times the use of biodiesels has gone up on a phenomenal rate. A number of fueling stations are providing consumers in Europe with instant biodiesel. The demand of biodiesel has also gone up in Canada and the United States of America.

A number of transport fleets are also using biodiesels in the form of additives in their regular fuels. One of the major features of biodiesel is that it is costlier than petrodiesel. However, the experts are of the opinion that the prices of biodiesels would be coming down pretty soon as lot of agricultural subsidies are now being provided and the costs of petroleum are rising as a result of reduction of oil reserves.

DaimlerChrysler introduced the Jeep Liberty CRD diesel in the United States market in 2005. This diesel had 5% biodiesel in it and this was an acknowledgment of the fact that biodiesel was gaining some ground as far as recognition from the major automobile makers. British business giant Richard Branson has also used biodiesel in the Virgin Voyager Train which is called Thames Voyager and has the number 220007. This train is supposed to have 20% biodiesel and 80% petrodiesel. It is being claimed that the train would be able to save up to 14% as far as direct emissions are concerned. Biodiesels are also being used in aircrafts nowadays.