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Daniel Clark

Fitzpatrick

Composition I

21 November 2009

Biodiesel’s Place in Our Energy Crisis

We as a society are addicted to fossil fuels and have reached a tipping point. We must

end our dependence on fossil fuels or face catastrophe. We must find a different fuel as we are

already beginning to face major global issues due to our addiction, especially petroleum. There

are many problems coming from our current fossil fuel use, including an oil shortage, and “peak

oil” (the idea the world consuming more oil than it can produce.) An oil shortage is coming and

simply put, we are running out of petroleum (Roger 18) because we are using more oil than we

are producing at this moment. We must begin to wean ourselves off oil now or we will have a

rude awakening when the wells begin to dry up.

Oil is also very hard on our environment and atmosphere. When oil burns it produces, a

greenhouse gas (a gas which cause the earth to warm by trapping the suns heat on earth) called

carbon dioxide. As cars burn gasoline, more carbon dioxide is produced than the earth can

process and consequently, our carbon dioxide levels are twenty-seven percent higher than any

time in the past 650,000 years and these high levels have caused large parts of Antarctica to

break off and melt ("Toppling" 400), which raises our sea levels that leads to weather changes.

These weather changes can cause draughts which can cause farmers crops to fail all the way to

hurricanes ("Around the World" 6). In addition to causing global warming, oil also is harming

wildlife and destroying miles of treasured coastlines from oil spills that are over 20 years old
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("Bioavailable"), such as in the case of the Exxon-Valdez. When the oil tanker, the Exxon-

Valdez began to leak, it destroyed 1400 miles of coast line, harmed the fishing industry, harmed

water fowl, and changed life forever for the residents of the Prince Edward sound ("High

Court").

Oil also causes political unrest throughout the world since petroleum is heavily connected

and intertwined to almost every industry and activity in our lives, from the food we eat, to cars

we drive, we use petroleum products more than we could ever imagine. We realized this in

October of 1973 during the oil crisis. We were dumbfounded; we were not sure what to do

without oil. A similar occurrence happened in summer of 2008 when oil prices hit all time highs.

These occurrences could happen again, and again and more often as tension grows in the Middle

East. We are currently at the mercy of people who do not like us, yet control the life and blood of

our modern lives. We cannot have a stable economy with uncertainty like this.

People are constantly debating new fuels such as hydrogen, ethanol, natural gas, and

other fuels that require heavy infrastructure changes right now; however there is an answer that

has literally been growing here right here in America- biodiesel. Biodiesel is a fuel that can solve

a number of the world’s problems.

One of biodiesels best features is that it can be made from a variety of different materials.

At the current time, plant oils, such as soybean oil, canola oil, olive oil, or any vegetable oil

(Ondrey 19), are the easiest and most popular materials to make biodiesel from. There are many

materials that biodiesel can be made from however, one very promising one is algae (pond

scum.) Researchers have discovered ways to get algae to produce oil which could very easily be

produced in to biodiesel. It has the benefit of much higher yields from a much smaller area than

traditional vegetable oil crops, and it also is not competing with food crops ("Science Scope" 8).
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Researchers are always finding new materials to make biodiesel from. An example of a new

material that researchers have found is coffee grounds ("Waste Coffee" 25). Researchers have

found a method to extract coffee oil from coffee grounds and covert that to biodiesel.

All of these oils, however, need to be refined before they can be called biodiesel. Many

people immediately begin to believe that in order to create biodiesel, which it would require a

large amount of science knowledge, but this is not the case. The standard production of biodiesel

requires two chemicals a catalyst (a substance accelerates a chemical reaction) and an alcohol.

The two most commonly used chemicals today are sodium hydroxide (commonly known as lye)

as a catalyst and methanol (commonly known as wood alcohol) as the alcohol (Saka, and

Kusdiana 225-31). These chemicals, while inexpensive, still cost money and require safety

precautions to be taken when handled. Therefore, scientists are currently developing and finding

new catalysts. One catalyst currently under consideration is made from shrimp shells.

Researchers in China claim that they have made this catalyst that is reusable, and very

environmentally friendly by heating the shrimp shells to high temperatures and adding a

chemical called potassium fluoride. The catalyst is not only better from an environmental

standpoint; it is also more efficient and is reusable (Chambers).

The actual production and mixing of the biodiesel at this point is as simple as following a

recipe, at least for now. The current way is to combine an alcohol with a catalyst, which under

the current system would be to mix sodium hydroxide with methanol. This produces something

called meth oxide; the meth oxide is then measured to the correct proportions before being added

to a warmed container of vegetable oil. A reaction then occurs in which the oil separates in a way

so that biodiesel and glycerin are produced. The mixture is allowed to sit and separate into two

distinct layers. The bottom layer (glycerin) is drained off and purified to be used in things like

cosmetics and medicines. The top layer (raw biodiesel) can then be either used directly or can be
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“washed” which removes any impurities left behind from the chemicals used in the processing of

this (Meher, Sagar, and Naik 248-68).

Biodiesel offers advantages over many of the other alternative fuels. This fuel can be

used in diesel engines without any modifications, something no other current alternative fuel can

do. All other current alternative fuels require extensive modifications to our infrastructure and

cars such as for hydrogen (Lombardi), ethanol ("Fueleconomy.gov"), or natural gas ("Energy

Efficiency and Renewable energy"). All of these are very expensive and take time to implant,

while biodiesel can be mixed with petroleum diesel in any amount and can be used in any diesel

vehicle without modification ("FAQ’s").

Another common proposal is to use raw, unmodified vegetable oils. The use of vegetable

oils in diesel engines is not new. Rudolph diesel originally invented the diesel engine to be run

on peanut oil (Dorr 2). He wanted a fuel that farmers could use that they could grow, produce

and use by themselves, however, as people found out when they used it straight vegetable oil, or

SVO, has a number of problems. An example of one of these problems that vegetable oils have a

much higher temperature in which they begin to gel or solidify(Sharma 129). This lead to

problems in colder climates, because when the temperature drops, the fuel will get so thick that

the fuel pump is not powerful enough to move the gelled oil, and the engine cannot tolerate how

thick the fuel is. Many experts even state that the vegetable oil should be heated to 160 degrees

Fahrenheit before it should be used as a fuel in diesel engines (Hester). Biodiesel however has a

much lower gel point and is therefore much better suited to colder climates. Petroleum diesel is

still better in this area because it jells at a lower temperature; however specialized biodiesel cold

weather fuel additives are currently being produced to make biodiesel a viable alternative in cold

climates ("Journey to Forever"). A final issue to consider with straight vegetable oil is that it can

gum up certain engine parts and damage them (Rao, and Mohan 937-44).
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A further benefit of biodiesel is that it is not limited to cars, and trucks. Since it works

just like diesel, it can be used any where petroleum diesel can be used. One possible use is that it

could be used in diesel generators. This could be very helpful after a natural disaster such as a

hurricane, storm, or a tornado; and why the generators could still not be used indoors, it could be

used close quarters near people and animals since it does not produce the harsh and dangerous

fumes and smells that petroleum diesel has.

Biodiesel can also be used in transportation other than automobile and truck, such as in

aviation (Dunn 1751–57). While Biodiesel works well in jets; however the fuel tanks currently

must kept warm, however cold weather additives are being developed for aircrafts which is

making the option more viable.

While many alternative fuels tend to be more expensive and oil prices are counting to

rise, biodiesel is the only viable fuel that is the answer to many of our energy problems. We must

find a way to get off oil immediately and no other fuel can offer us this. Biodiesel require no

infrastructure change at all, while remaining competitive in areas of price and availability.

Sources:

"Around the World." Earth Island Journal. Spring 2006: 6. Print.

"Bioavailable Contaminants Come From The Exxon Valdez Oil Catastrophe." Space Daily. 13

Sep 2009. Web. 23 Nov 2009.

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"Biodiesel in Winter." Journey to Forever. Journey to Forever, Web. 23 Nov 2009.

<http://journeytoforever.org/biodiesel_winter.html>.

Chambers, Nick. "Making Biodiesel Better With Waste Shrimp Shells." Gas 2.0. 29 Jul 2008.

Gas 2.0, Web. 1 Dec 2009. <http://gas2.org/2009/07/29/making-biodiesel-better-with-

waste-shrimp-shells/>.

Dorr, Thomas. "New energy sources: big deal for rural America." Rural Cooperatives. 6.73

(2006): 2. Print.

Dunn, R.O. "Alternative Jet Fuels from Vegetable Oils." Transactions of the ASAE 44.6 (2001):

1751–57. Web. 25 Nov 2009. <http://asae.frymulti.com/abstract.asp?aid=6988&t=1>.

"FAQs." The Official Site of The National Biodiesel Board. The National Biodiesel Board, Web.

25 Nov 2009. <http://www.biodiesel.org/resources/faqs/>.

"Flex Fuel Vehicles." Fueleconomy.gov. U.S. Department of Energy, Web. 25 Nov 2009.

<http://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/flextech.shtml>.

Hester, Collin. “Vegetable Oil Fuels Cal Poly Students' VW Rabbit." Mustang Daily. 29 May

2002, Print.

"High Court Cuts Damages in Exxon Valdez Oil Spill." pbs.org. 28 Jun 2008. Corporation for

Public Broadcasting, Web. 1 Dec 2009. <http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/law/jan-

june08/exxonvaldez_06-25.html>.
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Lombardi, Candace. "Priming the pump for hydrogen fuel." Cnet. 27 Mar 2007. Cnet, Web. 25

Nov 2009. <http://news.cnet.com/Priming-the-pump-for-hydrogen-fuel/2100-11392_3-

6170740.html>.

Meher, L.C., D. Vidya Sagar, and S.N. Naik. "Technical aspects of biodiesel production by

transesterification—a review." Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews. 10.3 (2006):

248-68. Web. 25 Nov 2009.

"Natural Gas Fueling Stations." Energy Efficiency and Renewable energy. 10 Jul 2009. U.S.

Department of Energy, Web. 25 Nov 2009.

<http://www.afdc.energy.gov/afdc/fuels/natural_gas_stations.html>.

Ondrey, Gerald. "A biocatalyst makes biodiesel fuel from waste vegetable oils." Chemical

Engineering. Mar 2005: 19. Print.

Rao, G. Amba Prasad, and P. Rama Mohan. "Effect of supercharging on the performance of a DI

Diesel engine with cotton seed oil." Energy Conversion and Management. 44.6 (2001):

937-44. Web. 25 Nov 2009.

Roger, Howard. "Peak oil and strategic resource wars: when the oil fields run dry--and they

will--what will happen to the economies of petroleum producers? And what will that

mean for the rest of us? The time to consider the potential scenarios and strategies is

now." Futurist. Sep-Oct 2009: 18. Print.

Saka, S., and D. Kusdiana. "Biodiesel fuel from rapeseed oil as prepared in supercritical

methanol." Fuel. 80.2 (2001): 225-31. Web. 25 Nov 2009.

"Science Scope." Science Scope. Mar 2007: 8. Print.

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Sharma, Brajendra K. "Chemical modification of vegetable oils for lubricant applications."

Journal of the American Oil Chemists' Society. 83.2 (2006): 129. Print.

"Toppling icebergs sped breakup of Larsen B ice shelf." Science News. 21 Dec 2002: 400. Print.

"Waste coffee grounds offer new source of biodiesel fuel." Engineering & Technology for a

Sustainable World. Mar 2009: 25. Print.