What is biodiesel and who uses it?

What is biodiesel:

Biodiesel is an alternative fuel that is made from ntural, recycles or otherwise waste products.

Zen Oil’s one-of-a-kind reaction process yields the highest industry standard biodiesel in South Africa. 

Who uses biodiesel:

Biodiesel has made its way into every industry that utilises traditional petroluem diesel. It is often blended with petroleum diesel in known proportions to suit the application. 

Blended biodiesel is denoted by a B(X) vlaue. A B100 denotes 100% pure biodiesel, B10 nedotes a 10% biodiesel and 90% petroluem diesel blend. 

Most vehicle OEMs allow for a B20 with no modifications necessary but it is always recommended to consult the owner’s manual prior to use

Biodiesel has many environmentally beneficial properties. The main benefit of biodiesel is that it can be described as ‘carbon neutral’. This means that the fuel produces no net output of carbon in the form of carbon dioxide (CO2). This effect occurs because when the oil crop grows it absorbs the same amount of CO2 as is released when the fuel is combusted. In fact this is not completely accurate as CO2 is released during the production of the fertilizer required to fertilize the fields in which the oil crops are grown. Fertilizer production is not the only source of pollution associated with the production of biodiesel, other sources include the esterification process, the solvent extraction of the oil, refining, drying and transporting. All these processes require an energy input either in the form of electricity or from a fuel, both of which will generally result in the release of green house gases. To properly assess the impact of all these sources requires use of a technique called life cycle analysis. Our section on LCA looks closer at this analysis. Biodiesel is rapidly biodegradable and completely non-toxic, meaning spillages represent far less of a risk than fossil diesel spillages. Biodiesel has a higher flash point than fossil diesel and so is safer in the event of a crash.