BioDiesel - What is it?

Biodiesel is a fuel produced from renewable resources such as vegetable oils, tallow and waste oils and fats.It can be used pure or blended with fossil diesel fuel. Blends of two to 30% do not require any modification to the car engine. With 100% pure biodiesel, minor modifications may sometimes be needed.

The 00 rapeseed variety (canola) is by far the biggest source of feedstock used for biodiesel production globally . With about 60% monounsaturated oleic fatty acid content and only about 6% saturated fatty acids, it is stable and does not freeze in cold winter temperatures. New varieties (LZ 7632) are reaching even higher levels of up to 87% oleic fatty acid.

The variety of biodiesel feedstock has, however, broadened over time and other vegetable oils used in bigger volumes today are sunflower oil (in southern France and Italy), soybean oil (in the USA) and palm oil (to fuel buses in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.)

In 1998/1999, high oilseed costs and record low prices for diesel fuel prompted the commercial production of biodiesel from recycled food oils from households and restaurants. McDonalds in Austria, for example, collects some 1,100 tonne of quality recycled frying oil from its 135 restaurants, which is then transesterified into fatty acid methyl ester (FAME) of standardised quality for fuel.

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