Biodiesel is a greenhouse emission-reducing, advanced biofuel that’s an excellent alternative for diesel users. Biodiesel isn’t only sustainable, it’s a more environmental-friendly, cleaner-burning option that is being employed in diesel engines without any modification. It’s one of the most practical and cost-effective ways to immediately address the temperature change issues.
Biodiesel does not contain any toxins
Biodiesel does not contain sulfur or any aromatic compounds that are unsafe to breathe. Biodiesel doesn’t pose any threat to human health and results in a significant reduction of most regulated emissions. It reduces lifecycle greenhouse gases by up to 86 percent, implying that the usage of biodiesel has already cut 75.5 million metric tons of carbon pollution. That’s equal to planting almost 1.9 billion trees!
It also helps in lowering the particulate matter by 47 percent, thus reducing the smog. This makes the air healthier to breathe.
Biodiesel Helps in Conserving Water
Biodiesel itself is non-toxic and biodegradable, so it doesn’t pose any risk to the country’s water resources. Rather, the production of biodiesel reduces water pollution by 79 percent and harmful waste by 96 percent.
Also, as biodiesel is becoming more widely used, it’s important to contemplate how consumption affects water quality and aquatic ecosystems. Research examining the biodegradability of various biodiesel fuels found that each one of the biofuels studied was readily biodegradable compounds and had a comparatively high biodegradation rate in water. Additionally, the presence of biodiesel can increase the speed of diesel biodegradation via co-metabolism. When the ratio of biodiesel is increased in biodiesel or diesel mixtures, the diesel gets degraded faster.
Biodiesel Encourages Land Preservation
No crops are grown specifically for producing biodiesel. It is produced from either edible fat or used cooking oil, so no land has to be cleared or converted to produce this renewable fuel, thus protecting the forests and also the native grasslands.
Moreover, lands that are unsuitable for agriculture are often used for the production of biodiesel. CO2 is one of the major greenhouse gases. Although the burning of biodiesel produces CO2 emissions similar to those from ordinary fossil fuels, the plant feedstock that is used in the production absorbs this CO2 from the atmosphere when it grows. Plants absorb carbon dioxide through a process referred to as photosynthesis which allows it to store energy from sunlight in the form of sugars and starches. When the biomass gets converted into biodiesel and is burnt as fuel, both the energy and the carbon gets released again. Some of this energy is used to power an engine while the CO2 is released back into the atmosphere.
Biodiesel Preserves and Protects the Natural Resources
Biodiesel balances the environmental energy. For one unit of energy needed to produce biodiesel, 5.5 units of energy are gained. Moreover, biodiesel is created from consumer waste matter like used vegetable oil and other agricultural or animal fats, thus utilizing these resources well rather than disposing of them.
