If you’ve been looking into going green, then you’ve probably heard the term bio-diesel, but for those that haven’t here is a quick aside to get you up to speed! Biodiesel is an alternative fuel that can be completely made from vegetable oil or animal fat. Unlike vegetable oil, that requires a conversion to be used as fuel, biodiesel requires no conversion as a diesel engine can still burn and combust the bio-diesel as fuel.
The advantage of using bio-diesel apart from it being cheaper than regular diesel, is that, if you are so inclined it can be ‘home brewed’ so to speak. (Read other Ways to Save Money Going Green.) It is something that you legally can make at home and use in your car (you will have to declare your usage though, for the lovely tax man!). It is also more lubricating than normal diesel and so will lessen the effect of engine wear on your engine and finally it will also lower the emissions that your car produces!!
There are several ways to produce bio-diesel, with some extreme methods using ultrasound or microwaves to produce the ether. The most common way to produce biodiesel is the chemical method.
So the production of biodiesel relies upon the reaction of an alcohol with the fatty oil, which the product are the actual bio-diesel and glycerol. This is a rather simple explanation, as there are other purification methods needed, but essentially you can leave the mixture of alcohol, fatty oil and a catalyst by itself and it will just get on with the reaction with minim
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