CarBuyersNoteBook

Bio-Diesel

If you already own a car with a diesel engine, you might have heard about kits you can buy to convert the grease at fast food restaurants into diesel fuel for your car. While you can indeed invest in a conversion kit that will accomplish that, you might not have to. Bio-diesel is an environmentally friendlier fuel for diesel engines (and also oil home heating furnaces) that is catching on rapidly and can be used in place of regular petroleum based diesel fuel with no conversion measures taken.

Bio-diesel is sold in ratios of 10- or 20-percent modified vegetable oil mixed with regular petroleum diesel. The fuels are called B10 or B20—the ‘B’ stands for the percentage of non-petroleum oils mixed into the fuel.  Soybean is the most commonly used biological oil, but rapeseed, corn oil, and even animal fat can also be found. Bio-diesel reduces U.S. dependence on foreign oil and emits fewer toxins than regular diesel, but gasoline still burns cleaner overall.