Biodiesel Usa

Biodiesel is commercially available in most oilseed-producing states in the United States. As of 2005, it is somewhat more expensive than fossil diesel, though it is still commonly produced in relatively small quantities (in comparison to petroleum products and ethanol). Many farmers who raise oilseeds use a biodiesel blend in tractors and equipment as a matter of policy, to foster production of biodiesel and raise public awareness. It is sometimes easier to find biodiesel in rural areas than in cities.

In the United States, alcohol fuel was produced in corn-alcohol stills until Prohibition criminalized the production of alcohol in 1919. Interest in alcohol as an automotive fuel lapsed until the oil price shocks of the 1970s. Reacting to the high price of oil and its growing dependence on imports, in 1975 Brazil launched a huge government-subsidized effort to manufacture ethanol fuel (from its sugar cane crop) and ethanol-powered automobiles. These ethanol-only vehicles were very popular in the 1980s, but became economically impractical when oil prices fell - and sugar prices rose - late in that decade. In recent years Brazil has encouraged the development of flex-fuel automobiles, where the owner can use any mixture of ethanol and gasoline based on their individual cost and performance goals. In 2005, 70% of the cars sold in Brazil were flex-fuel.

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Production of biodiesel, according to the University of Idaho report, is very efficient, with 4.2 BTUs of liquid gained for each BTU used in production and processing. They also found that, if "farmers were allowed to grow rapeseed as an energy crop on set-aside or CRP acreage, biodiesel would be used in agriculture. If the environmental advantages were fully understood, biodiesel would become the fuel of choice, even at a higher price, for many environmentally sensitive or pollutant-prone areas." (Rapeseed is a winter annual producing about 2,000 pounds of seed per acre - yielding about 100 gallons of oil for fuel, and 1,200 pounds of meal). The Idaho report noted that transesterification (using an alchohol in the presence of a catalyst to chemically break the molecules) is needed before the rapeseed oil can be used in ordinary diesel engines. The Univeristy of Idaho used a 200-gallon batch reactor to produce methyl and ethyl esters from rapeseed oil.