Biofuel

Biodiesel is simply a liquid fuel derived from vegetable oils and fats, which has
similar combustion properties to regular petroleum diesel fuel. Biodiesel can be
produced from straight vegetable oil, animal oil/fats, tallow and waste cooking oil.
Biodiesel is biodegradable, nontoxic, and has significantly fewer emissions than
petroleum-based diesel when burned.
Biodiesel is an alternative fuel similar to conventional or fossil/petroleum diesel.
The process used to convert these oils to biodiesel is called transesterification.
This process is described in more detail below. The largest possible source of
suitable oil comes from oil crops such as soybean, rapeseed, corn, and sunflower.

Transesterification
Transesterification of natural glycerides with methanol to methylesters is a
technically important reaction that has been used extensively in the soap and
detergent manufacturing industry worldwide for many years.
During the esterification process, the triglyceride is reacted with alcohol in the
presence of a catalyst, usually a strong alkaline like sodium hydroxide. The
alcohol reacts with the fatty acids to form the mono-alkyl ester, or biodiesel, and
crude glycerol. In most production, methanol or ethanol is the alcohol used
(methanol produces methyl esters, ethanol produces ethyl esters) and is base
catalyzed by either potassium or sodium hydroxide. Potassium hydroxide has been
found more suitable for the ethyl ester biodiesel production, but either base can be
used for methyl ester production.

A successful transesterification reaction is signified by the separation of the methyl

ester (biodiesel) and glycerol layers after the reaction time. The heavier coproduct, glycerol, settles out.
Benefits:
Biodiesel is biorenewable. Feedstocks can be renewed one or more times in a
generation.
Biodiesel is carbon neutral. Plants use the same amount of CO2 to make the oil
that is released when the fuel is burned.
Biodiesel is rapidly biodegradable and completely nontoxic, meaning spillages
represent far less risk than petroleum diesel spillages.

Countries using Biofuel

The use of biofuels varies by region and with increasing oil prices there is a
renewed interest in it as an energy source.
Brazil
The government of Brazil hopes to build on the success of the Prolcool
ethanol program by expanding the production of biodiesel which must
contain 2% biodiesel by 2008, and 5% by 2013.
USA
Essentially all ethanol fuel in the US is produced from corn. Corn is a very
energy-intensive crop, which requires one unit of fossil-fuel energy to create
just 0.9 to 1.3 energy units of ethanol.
France
France is the second largest biofuel consumer among the EU States in 2006.
Germany
Germany remained the largest European biofuel consumer in 2006, with a
consumption estimate of 2.8 million tons of biodiesel (equivalent to
2,408,000 toe), 0.71 million ton of vegetable oil (628.492 toe) and 0.48
million ton of bioethanol (307,200 toe).
India
In 2005, India became the worlds fourth largest producer of ethanol at 1.6
billion liters and at the same time the worlds largest consumer of sugar. The
country aims to replace 20% of the countrys diesel requirement with
biodiesel.