Market Potential of Biodiesel - The Manufacturer.com - Promoting best practice in Manufacturing

Market Potential of Biodiesel - The Manufacturer.com - Promoting best practice in Manufacturing: "Phoenix, AZ - March XX, 2007 - Energy Business Reports,the energy industry think tank and research center, writers that ethanol and biodiesel are the most widely recognized biofuel sources for transport sector. Commercial production of biodiesel in the United States began in the 1990s.

The National Biodiesel Board reported production of 500,000 gallons in 1999 and 6.7 million gallons in 2005. The most common sources of oil for biodiesel production in the United States are soybean oil and yellow grease (mostly recycled cooking oil from restaurants).

Biodiesel refers to a diesel-equivalent, processed fuel derived from biological sources such as vegetable oils, etc; which can be used in unmodified diesel engine vehicles. It is thus distinguished from the straight vegetable oils (SVO) or waste vegetable oils (WVO) used as fuels in some modified diesel vehicles. The concept of using vegetable oil as a fuel dates back to 1895 when Dr. Rudolf Diesel developed the first diesel engine to run on vegetable oil. Diesel demonstrated his engine at the World Exhibition in Paris in 1900 using peanut oil as fuel.

Biodiesel is made through a chemical process called transesterification whereby the glycerin is separated from the fat or vegetable oil. The process leaves behind two products -- methyl esters (th"