Quality Homemade Biodiesel Is The New 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. Now we are coming to understand how unsustainable our lives are. Nobody can justify this kind of violence, and it makes us think how these individuals can be so angry and driven, but then when we look at all the material that scientists now give us and realise that our crazy lifestyles really are alien to the sustainable future of our 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.
As always, political developments are slow and we are often frustrated by the inability of our political leaders to make headway. Recent and crucial talks in Copenhagen resulted in only moderate agreement and few, tangible results. As individuals, we all know that we can make a difference if we take action and really focus on how we use transportation on a daily basis. 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. It used to be okay to drive a car that was way too big, cumbersome and inefficient for our actual needs and as much as anything else, when gas was only 50 or 60 cents per gallon.
It seems that biodiesel fuel is a much brighter option for the future. 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. If you are suitably inclined, making biodiesel at home is a good option. 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.