Biodiesel

Biodiesel is the fuel for diesel engine that is produced from plant oil, animal fat or used cooking oil after get rid of sticky rubber and dirt and go there the process of Transesterification by adding catalyst such as sodium hydroxide to change the fat or oil structure from triglycerides to Mono Alkyl Ester such as Methyl Ester or Ethyl Ester and Glycerin or the process of extraction of glycerin from the oil.
Mono Alkyl Ester is like diesel oil or is called Biodiesel or B100 and Glycerin is the by product used in pharmaceutical and cosmetic industry and lubricating oil etc.

Properties of Biodiesel

Pure biodiesel (Neat biodiesel) has the value of C-tane higher than diesel oil. The different properties compare to diesel oil are that it is non-ignite and non explosive substance. The ignition point is 120 oC while that of diesel oil is at 64 oC. It is a clean fuel and helps increase the burning efficiency of the engine and improve the ignition, thus result in complete combustion. Besides using as direct fuel for low cycle diesel engine, it can also adjust to be used with high cycle diesel engine without any problem with the engine performance both in the short and long term use. When comparing with the diesel oil, the biodiesel will help to reduce the air pollution such as carbon monoxide and hydrocarbon and dust by 20-40%

( Source from the paper www.vichakarn.com )

The benefit of Biodiesel

1. In practice, the biodiesel has higher C-tane value (ignition index) than diesel oil resulted in better ignition and complete combustion and low carbon monoxide, no black smoke and no sulfur dioxide which will save the environment
2. In term of economic, biodiesel is cheaper than diesel oil because it could help to raise the price of agricultural produce of Thailand and reduce of import oil.In term of environment and quality of life, biodiesel help reduce the air pollution.
3. In term of environment and quality of life, biodiesel help reduce the air pollution. It is biodegradable. It can also reduce the medical cost in treating the patients suffered from air pollution.

The drawback of Biodiesel

1. Biodiesel may give lower engine power than regular diesel engine.
2. Biodiesel will produce more Nitrogen oxide
3. Using of Biodiesel require adjustment of changing the rubber part of the engine because rubber could be destroy by biodiesel.