Fewer greenhouse gas emissions from biodiesel

Diesel fuels refined from organic material are cleaner than diesel fuels from out of the ground. This is the finding from a study by Australia's scientific research body, the CSIRO. Not only is biodiesel a fuel that is 'renewable', it's actually cleaner than the non-renewable diesel refined from petroleum.

'Taken straight' or blended with mineral diesel fuel, the biodiesel also produces fewer particulates than the petroleum-derived diesel alternative.

Biodiesel can be produced by refining it from vegetable oils or animal fats. Palm oil, canola and tallow (rendered animal fats) are all capable of providing the basis for biodiesel production. To date, the most common source for biodiesel is recycled cooking oil.

Produced and supplied in industrial quantities, the biodiesel in Australia's transport fleet would show a marked improvement on greenhouse gas emissions.

That's the gist of the CSIRO's Energy Transformed National Research Flagship study.

The author of the report, Dr. Tom Beer, said: "The results of this study show biodiesel has the potential to reduce emissions from the transport industry, which is the third largest producer of greenhouse gases in Australia, behind stationary energy generation and agriculture.

"The greenhouse gas savings do however depend on the feedstock used to produce the biodiesel. The highest savings are obtained by replacing base diesel with biodiesel from used cooking oil, resulting in an 87 per cent emission reduction.

"Palm oil can produce up to an 80 per cent saving in emissions provided it is sourced from pre-1990 plantations. The palm oil source is critical as product from plantations established on recently dried peat swamps or cleared tropical forest will in fact have higher greenhouse gas emissions than regular diesel due to factors such as land clearing."

So far, the study confines itself to the theoretical. CSIRO is looking at other alternative fuels too, but admits that "further research is required to establish the viability of the biofuels industry in Australia and address some of the associated issues such as sustainability, technological improvements and economic feasibility."

'The greenhouse and air quality emissions of biodiesel blends in Australia' report can be downloaded here.

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