Biodiesel

Crude oil and petroleum products can be useful to mankind only for another one or two centuries if there is no self control over its usage. Society started thinking seriously about alternate fuels. Biodiesel is a promising candidate for alternate fuel. Biodiesel is actually vegetable based fuel or animal-fat based fuel. Biodiesel consists of long chain alkyl esters. Ethyl esters, methyl esters and propyl esters are the most common biodiesel entities. Production method of biodiesel is a chemical reaction-reaction between lipids and alcohol. The main application of biodiesel is in diesel engines. Biodiesel can also be used by blending with petro-diesel. There are many varieties of biodiesel such as B100, B20, B5 and B2. Number indicates % of biodiesel. For example, B20 contains 20% biodiesel and 80%petro-diesel. Biodiesel can also be used as a low carbon alternative to heating oil. Change of fuel filters is recommended on engines and heaters after first switching to a biodiesel blend to avoid getting clogged with particulates. The four commonly used methods for the industrial production of biodiesel are common batch process, supercritical process, ultrasonic method and microwave method.