HOMEMADE VRS COMMERCIAL BIODIESEL  

The question has been asked as to whether homemade biodiesel is more polluting than commercial biodiesel. The simple answer is NO. In fact, when homemade biodiesel is made to high standards it can EXCEED the qualities of commercial biodiesel. Homemade biodiesel can be made to 98% conversion levels, whereas the standard for commercial biodiesel is only 96%.

However, many persons choose to save some money and make biodiesel to a lesser conversion level, sometimes only 85% of the oil is converted to biodiesel. The increase in unprocessed oil does not constitute a significant pollutant to the environment. The CSIRO’s report on Comparison of Transport Fuels to the Australian Greenhouse Office looked at various fuels such as petrol diesel, canola oil and biodiesel. In their final report it was stated, “Canola is made from agricultural crops and is widely perceived to be more environmentally friendly than fossil fuels.” Thus, even though there may be a small increase in unprocessed oil in the biodiesel – the resulting biodiesel fuel is always more environmentally friendly than fossil fuel, even if none of the oil was converted to biodiesel!

In comparing the environmental impact between commercial and homemade biodiesel, the equation is tilted more strongly to homemade biodiesel (even poorly made homemade biodiesel) because of the feedstock commonly used in the production of the homemade biodiesel. Commercial biodiesel relies upon purposely grown crops such as canola. The feedstock for homemade biodiesel is waste vegetable oil (WVO), that is, “fish and chip” shop oil.

Looking at the CSIRO’s “life-cycle” analysis of various transport fuels it is clear that biodiesel made from WVO scored the best. It had the least amount of emissions of greenhouse gases out of all the feedstock used to make biodiesel. In fact, it has approximately 10% of the greenhouse gases that commercially grown canola biodiesel creates. It is virtually impossible for even the poorest quality biodiesel from WVO to even come close to reaching the amount of greenhouse gas emissions from commercial biodiesel that has been made from purposely grown crops.

Further, the conversion of WVO to fuel not only helps with the air quality, but also with minimizing land degradation. As the CSIRO state, “It is also clear that some waste cooking oil is not collected and is disposed of in landfill and other locations”. Clearly, if such WVO could be utilized in making environmentally friendly fuel, then that utilization is a preferable course for government to pursue and encourage.

Please see the attached Biodiesel summary from the CSIRO for more information: