Biodiesel: A Closer Look
Large amounts of vegetable and animal-derived oils are used in cooking. Fast food restaurants and snack food factories create a lot of oil waste annually. The used oil can be refined for use in diesel engines in trucks, cars, and other vehicles.
To create biodiesel, the used oil must be filtered and all impurities must be removed. This can be done through a fairly easy chemical procedure. A growing number of private and commercial filtration systems are emerging.
Today in the USA, you can see biodiesel vehicles on the road. They look just like other vehicles, but have diesel engines. (Their exhaust smells a bit like French Fries, too.)
Environmental Cost
Biodiesel from used cooking oil has little environmental costs because the oil already exists, having been used for another purpose. While this saves waste processing, it still produces greenhouse gases. Plants can also be grown solely to make oil for biodiesel, but this removes cropland from food production, which is needed in many parts of the world.
Biodiesel from used cooking oil has little environmental costs because the oil already exists, having been used for another purpose. While this saves waste processing, it still produces greenhouse gases. Plants can also be grown solely to make oil for biodiesel, but this removes cropland from food production, which is needed in many parts of the world.
DID YOU KNOW? As energy efficiency grows in importance, additional waste products of modern society are being burned for energy. These can include burning old tires or non-recyclable plastics in cement kilns, co-generation of heat and electricity, and many others.