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Biodiesel & Global Warming
It is widely known through the scientific community that global warming. Is a significant threat to life on earth. With polar ice caps melting, an increase in hurricanes and the earth's overall temperature rising, we are at a crucial point in the history of our planet to make significant changes or face crisis. Recently, Arnold Schwazenegger, governor of California (5th largest economy in the world) signed Assembly Bill 32 which commits California to committed to reducing greenhouse gases by 2010 to 2000 levels and by 2020 to 1990 levels. So with all this information about global warming, greenhouse gases, etc. where does Biodiesel fit in?
For every gallon of B100 burned 13.4 lbs of greenhouse gases are emitted compared to 20lbs of greenhouse gases emitted from petrol diesel emissions.
For example, the bay area consumes 500 million gallons of Diesel per year which equals 10 billion lbs of green house gases or 5 million short tons of GHG's. If the bay were to use B20 (20% biodiesel and 80% diesel) there would be a savings of 660 million lbs or 330K tons of GHG's.
Given the current rate of greenhouse gases increasing and the fact that transportation in the Bay area contributes to 50% of the greenhouse gases emitted, it is time that Biodiesel is viewed as a significant solution for the decrease of global warming.
Why does using Biodiesel reduce green house gas emissions? When a plant grows it consumes carbon dioxide in the air and converts it into oxygen. When the plant, in this case a sunflower, is harvested, pressed for oil and the oil burned, the carbon that was taken out of the air by the plant is released. However since the next year's harvest essentially consumes the carbon from the last year this results in a closed loop cycle.
In the case of diesel aka Fossil fuels or petroleum, the creation of this energy is done over millions of years. Once it is taken out of the ground and burned it releases the carbon stored and is non regenerative. Additionally, because of it compressing in our earth crust for millions of years it has enormous energy capacity, thus providing us with abundant sources of energy. The downside of this unfortunately, is the overwhelming amount of pollution and various societal problems associated with this pollution.
- Emissions Comparison to Diesel
- Health Benefits with Biodiesel
- Biodiesel & Global Warming
