Inexpensive Homemade Biodiesel Is The Next Fuel For The Future
It is difficult to watch the violence that we see surrounding political summits discussing climate change and it makes us realise just how much tension is in the air surrounding this subject. We are simply coming to terms with just how unsustainable our lives really are. Such anger and violence may be alien to most of us and we could wonder what drives these people to be so impassioned, but when we concentrate on some of the scientific evidence now available, we can see how our extravagant lifestyles and requirements are at odds with the planet. Most of us realise that we now need to aggressively cut down on our energy use, both individually and collectively, and to take a major element of responsibility for what we do. Greenhouse gases are building up in our atmosphere due to our use of those traditional fossil fuels – gas, coal and oil, raising our Earth’s temperature and threatening considerable harm to future generations unless we act quickly.
Politicians are slow as usual and we cannot understand why they are not acting more quickly. It was frustrating to see very little of tangible use emerge from the recent summit in Copenhagen. Each one of us has to take action and we are aware, for example, that we need to cut back on our transportation needs. We have been told for years to try and carpool, to use public transportation, to use bicycles or even to walk to work. If environmental reasons are not enough to cause us to constrain our use, we should remember the events of 2008 when gasoline prices spiked considerably.
Our cars, trucks and buses are huge polluters of the environment and the automotive industry in the United States in particular is slow to shrug off the vestiges of an era when gas guzzlers were totally acceptable. Once, it was acceptable to drive the lumbering, cumbersome and thirsty vehicle, especially when gasoline was much less than a dollar per gallon.
Now we know that biodiesel fuel represents a much more palatable option. The fuel is derived from agricultural products which are generally widely available. The product is made with leftover fat or vegetable oil and mixed with methanol for separation. With a little bit of application and ingenuity, making biodiesel at home is a very viable solution. As a rule of thumb, homemade biodiesel in undiluted form can be used in your diesel engine vehicle with no additional effort, but many vehicles use a blend of conventional petrodiesel and biodiesel, called B20, B40, etc.
Biodiesel may not yet have “arrived” in terms of popular culture, but as our desire to cut back on consumption, to explore alternative hybrid vehicles and to generally live greener lives increases, we’re sure to see more emphasis on this renewable form of energy. When this special fuel does eventually become widely available to people all around the world, we will have a much better chance at slowing the incredible rate of global ecological change.
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