BIODIESEL FUELS 101
People have always heard biodiesel fuels and all that in school and form other fellow truck drivers but few really understand its essence and component. Biodiesel fuel is a kind of diesel that is not made of petroleum. This means that this has natural compounds such as fats and oils. That is why it is also called fatty acid methyl or FAME.
The creation or development of this oil is credited to G. Chavanne in 1937. He was granted a patent for creating a process of transforming vegetable oil into a fuel. This process is known as alcoholysis—a process known today as transesterification. This is called so because biodiesel fuels l is a mono-alcoholic mixture. Vegetable oil and fatty acids are mixed with ethanol, to be specific.
Ideally, the mixture should of biodiesel fuels be made of the vegetable oil and glycerol. Glycerol is also known to many people as glycerine. This is a chemical compound that is made of lipids. It is non-toxic and it is odorless. However, it was preferred by many that ethyl is used instead of glycerol because glycerol is a sugar based alcohol.
Biodiesel is measured in terms of the B Factor. This letter “B” mean blend. If a biodiesel fuels blend is 15%, then the blend is known as B15. If it is 20%, then the biodiesel blend is called B20. This is not ideally used 100% because it will cause complications in the vehicles. This is because biodiesel burns fast. And as such, there is a need to replace filters often.
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[...] and there is a need to clean the vehicle’s filters more often. This is especially so if the biodiesel fuel is used in its 100% form known as [...]