Biodiesel is Better Fuel to Replace Traditional Fuel

Barrie's near-miss with hosting Canada's biggest ethanol refinery left us with a deep disbelief of biofuels, oil or petrol substitutes made of non-fossil sources. Yet they're still pushed as viable choices, notwithstanding charges of green-washing. Definitely growing corn thru standard economic farming, concerning heavy fertilization ( from petrochemicals ), energy-intensive irrigation and insecticides ( yet more petrochemicals ), then shipping it great distances only to use still more energy and water to distill it, is no model of supportability. But commercial corn-ethanol is only one example of biofuels, at the worst end of the range. There are exciting findings using enzymes to make ethanol from non-food sources, like grass or wood, including leading Canadian company, Iogen. And , there are more, more sustainable biofuels, and we will be able to access one of them here in Barrie : biodiesel, made of food oils. Biodiesel is made of non-fossil sources -- used deepfryer oil from restaurants , expired marg or vegetable oil, even rendered animal fat or farm waste. Last year, my mate Andrew Miller, of Back to Basics Social Developments, brought a biodiesel co-op to Dalston. The supply company grew and produced oil for cafe kitchens, then reclaimed the used oil to be processed into biodiesel, which was put into gas tanks in the neighborhood.

Biodiesel may be employed in most diesel engines ( check with your manufacturer to make sure ), or in-home heating oil furnaces.

It's far safer compared to 'dino-diesel ' ( made of petrol ), as it is less damaging than table salt and biodegrades in the environment quicker than sugar, if it happens to spill. It is cleaner-burning and even less inflammable than regular diesel, which itself is less unsafe than petrol. It even stores better than regular diesel, and you can mix them together at any proportion, dependent on what suits your engine. There are technologies in ongoing development to supply biodiesel from algae, using either waste in sewage pools or perhaps carbon-dioxide from the smokestacks of existing industry, so it might clean up our air or water and provide fuel simultaneously. Andrew has brought his biodiesel co-op to Barrie this year, and I am excited to be an affiliate.

Though there's a nominal sign up charge, it's made up by the indisputable fact that you get the biodiesel at 5 cents below an equitable price at the pump. How frequently are you able to do something which is better for the environment at a lower price, rather than paying a premium? If you drive a diesel car and have an interest in keeping your summer driving costs down while reducing poisons and Carbon emissions in the atmosphere, you must contact Andrew about joining his co-op.