Biodiesel: a new renewable energy alternative

Will biodiesel becomes the next alternative fuel in US? I found that it comes out with hope for a better future saving the global warming, reducing emissions and reducing the country’s dependence on foreign petroleum to biodiesel instead.

What is biodiesel?  It’s a fuel made from vegetable oil, animal grease, used restaurants oil and animal fats and has to meet the American society of testing and materials (ASTM) standards to obtain its name. It’s considered a renewable energy that can be used in diesel engine vehicles. It's called B100 in its pure form or B5, B2 and B20 with different mixture ratios; for example, B20 contains 20% biodiesel and 80% gasoline. Many Federal incentives have been made to back up a plan to use biodiesel all over the country it was even supported by president Obama in Washington Aug. 16,2011 to invest up to $510 million dollars to develop the bio fuel industry to be used commercially and for military use. “Biofuels are an important part of reducing America’s dependence on foreign oil and creating jobs here at home,” said president Obama. I think it was obvious that he wanted to show the importance of using renewable energy due to the rise in oil prices, which will lead in supporting farmers, economy and create new jobs.

Many benefits will come out from biofuel production with the proper public policy to ensure its success through initiating and backing the energy policies sector. One of which was a tax credit of 30% for any equipment installed by gas stations where they can use it for different sites, and a $1000 dollar tax credit for consumers buying a biodiesel car, which succeeded in distributing the idea all over the country and the world to demand renewable energy. That supported its success as an industry filling the dominated market, which I hope strengthens in coming few years.

In the previous year, the record of 1.1 billion gallons was produced, which supported more than 50,000 jobs in states with billions of dollars. This, in turn, increased individual incomes and tax cycles due to rolling most of the states in this industry and helping the growth of the national income.

This market will increase our own renewable fuel more than depending on every day global oil price changes. We produced a total of 4.6 billion gallons in the U.S since 2005, which decreased the imported diesel fuel to the country and gave biodiesel gas to the cities supporting the sustainability of the economic growth with a clean preparation that helps the environment with its green low emissions as to 86%, according to the environmental protection agency compared to the regular gas. The difference in emissions is like removing 5.4 million cars from the roads. EPA announced that diesel exhaust in U.S has created high levels of emissions which would affect the country in future due to the high number of trucks, cars and buses on roads. The easiest solution to it is to increase the biodiesel fuel replacing it to improve the gas emissions. Additionally, it is beneficial for the car’s engine, because its high surface lubricity which will make it a better candidate than normal diesel, since it will result in less wear in the engine and longer oil changes.

Another positive fact for using biodiesel is that it's a non-toxic fuel suitable for the environment and its prices are less than the regular diesel, which was created by the renewable fuel standard program(RFS)  initiated by EPA. In past years, the Navy bought a B20 bend for the steam plant in ST.Julien’s Creek Annex close to Norfolk in Virginia for 13 cents for the gallon where it’s much less than the regular diesel gas.

But someone might argue that the continued growth of corn land use for biodiesel would rise the food prices in the future, As much I believe in the good that will be reflected to the country’s benefit in minimizing its dependence from foreign oil, I think that our money will improve economic growth and raise the household income to strengthen our Dollar.

The demand for biodiesel is growing every day due to the rising prices of the market demand for oil which will increase our investment in it. RFS is working hard on biodiesel fuel development to sustain and increase biodiesel demand . Some of its projects and facilities under development in more than 20 states in the country are growing a competitive completion for the regular diesel or gasoline fuel in U.S . Additionally the RFS demands for producing Biofuel is expected to reach 21 billion gallon per year by 2022, where our country can produce more than 75 billion gallon biofuel per year by 2030, which give me no choice but to support the Biofuel industry development.

Special Thanks for Tom Shook in editing this article.

Ref:

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