4 Surprising Uses of Biodiesel You May Not Have Known About
4 SURPRISING USES OF BIODIESEL YOU MAY NOT HAVE KNOWN ABOUT
Keep the environment healthy one step at a time by checking out these 4 surprising uses of biodiesel you may not have known about!
Keyword(s): uses of biodiesel
Each year, we produce nearly 40 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels.
Biodiesel can go a long way to help with reducing this figure. You have probably heard about biodiesel being used as a supplemental fuel for cars, but that only scratches the surface of what they can do.
Read on for 4 surprising uses of biodiesel you may not have known about!
1. Cleaning Up Oil Spills
Biodiesel is well known for being better for the environment than traditional diesel. But did you know that it can help the environment by cleaning up oil spills? It has been used as a cleaning agent for shorelines contaminated with crude oil.
Tests have shown it to improve the recovery rate of crude oil from sand columns. This means it could be useful on beaches and other coastal areas.
Many commercial bio-solvents also include biodiesel. When used on contaminated sea water, they coagulate the crude oil. This means it can be easily skimmed off the surface.
2. Heating Your Home
In the last few years, bioheat has grown in popularity. You can use biodiesel as home heating oil in both domestic and commercial boilers.
You can use a 20% biodiesel blend (B20) without needing modifications. Be aware though – older equipment was never designed for biodiesel, so stronger mixes can damage rubber seals and gaskets.
For equipment with higher tolerance, stronger blends can actually help to clean out pipes. This will improve heating efficiency but may cause initial clogging to the fuel filter.
3. Generating Electricity
Biodiesel can go a long way to reduce the environmental impact of power generation.
It could have a real impact in backup systems where the reduction of emissions matters. For example, hospitals, schools, and other facilities in residential areas.
It isn’t unreasonable to think that biodiesel could completely replace petroleum for electrical production in the future.
4. Removing Paint, Adhesives, and Grease
Products designed for paint removal are often very toxic. This is because they need to eat away at the paint. Biodiesel is an excellent replacement for smaller-scale and non-critical applications.
It wouldn’t be suitable for your car’s custom paint job, but for most domestic applications it is perfect. It is handy for removing the adhesive residues left over from things like duct tape too.
Biodiesel also makes a great bike-chain lubricant and de-greaser. A little B100 and it will make the world of difference if your bike chain starts to squeak!
It is also an effective solvent for industrial metal cleaning. Biodiesel is so good in fact, it can clean dirty or greasy machine parts.
Uses of Biodiesel
As you can see, the uses of biodiesel are pretty wide-ranging. Producing heat, electricity and even cleaning are all easily achieved with biodiesel, with limited changes to existed systems. And this is only scratching the surface!
If you would like to help contribute to a more sustainable world, contact us at Smarter Alternative Fuels. We can save you time and money by organizing your used cooking oil collection, and turning it into sustainable biodiesel.