Biodiesel is a vegetable oil based fuel that can be used as a replacement for petroleum diesel in any diesel engine with little or no modification to that engine. Biodiesel is rapidly gaining acceptance around the world, in large part, due to the its many health and environmental benefits, when compared to the effects of regular diesel.

The combustion engine has stood unrivalled as the primary source of power for industry and transportation. Continued use of these engines in the near and distant future is almost certain. Much like crude petroleum oil, crude vegetable oil can be processed into fuels. Unlike fossil fuel, "bio-fuel" can be grown year after year on the same land.

Rudolph Diesel (inventor of the diesel engine) presented his engine to the world (in 1900) running it on vegetable oil alone. He wanted to offer towns, farms and villages a way to produce their fuels regionally and believed that nations growing their own fuel would economically prosper. Today those of us dependent on petroleum imports go steadily into debt, exporting our nations wealth to acquire another nations fuel. As we deplete the earth's supply of non-renewable fossil fuel, Rudolph's wisdom becomes clear.

Spent fryer oil is created by every restaurant in the world serving french fries, chicken wings and the like. Each year in the United States alone, 3 to 4 billion gallons of Waste Vegetable Oil (WVO) are being dumped into landfills, added to pet food and cosmetics as well as filtered and sold as "cooking oil" to people in third world countries. This same waste oil can be used to cleanly power our vehicles. After reheating the oil numerous times, restaurants must pay someone between $1 and $2 a gallon to dispose of it. WVO makes economic sense in today's high priced, petroleum monopolized, fuel market.

Overseas, biodiesel has been in use for well over a decade and most countries now offer biodiesel at the pump along with gas and diesel. In several countries the price of biodiesel is lower than that of petroleum fuel, in part, due to the country's commitment to the environment. Recently U.S. subsidies to "oil seed" farmers have brought the price of biodiesel well within the range of diesel fuel costs at the pump.

Many thousands of people around the world are fueling diesel engines (the most efficient type of internal combustion engine) with biodiesel. In 1999 Volkswagen put the "Lupo" car on the European market. The Lupo uses the latest in Diesel technology creating a vehicle that is quiet, powerful, clean, gets 80 miles to the gallon and is approved (i.e..under warranty) for use with biodiesel.

Bio-diesel is not only renewable and economically feasible but it is also considerably cleaner for the environment as a liquid or when burned. Petroleum products create significantly higher levels of greenhouse gasses and other emission toxins than their plant based counter parts.

In terms of human health, petroleum gas and diesel are well known carcinogens. Veggie fuels biodegrade quickly, are nontoxic and pose almost no threat to the health of plant and animal communities (the exhaust smells like french fries!!). The amount of co2 (the primary greenhouse gas) produced by burning one gallon of bio-diesel is about the same amount needed to grow enough plants for that much fuel. The carbon dioxide, created by burning the fuel, is essentially recycled by the next crop of fuel oil producing plants, this results in emissions that are virtually "carbon neutral".

Biodiesel can be easily purchased in the U.S.A. or made at home with a small co-op of friends. Affordable, earth friendly fuel is a reality today. Large petroleum companies stand to benefit from oil becoming a scarce and precious resource so don't expect "Big Oil" to be the driving force behind new fuel solutions, after all veggie fuel has been around a hundred years. The time is right for those of us who wish to move forward on cleaner burning alternative fuels!

Written by Charris Ford