Report confirms biodiesel use could reduce greenhouse gas emissions
Washington, Nov 28: A new report by Australia's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) has confirmed that using pure biodiesel or blending it with standard fuel could reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the transport sector.
Biodiesel is manufactured from any product containing fatty acids, such as vegetable oil or animal fats including cooking oil, tallow (rendered animal fat), imported palm oil and canola.
Dr Tom Beer, CSIRO Energy Transformed National Research Flagship researcher and report author, stated that the results of the study clearly showed the positive effect biodiesel can have.
“The results of this study show biodiesel has the potential to reduce emissions from the transport industry, which is the third largest producer of greenhouse gases in Australia, behind stationary energy generation and agriculture,” Dr Beer said.
“The greenhouse gas savings do however depend on the feedstock used to produce the biodiesel. The highest savings are obtained by replacing base diesel with biodiesel from used cooking oil, resulting in an 87 per cent emission reduction.
“The results of this study show biodiesel has the potential to reduce emissions from the transport industry, which is the third largest producer of greenhouse gases in Australia, behind stationary energy generation and agriculture.
“Palm oil can produce up to an 80 per cent saving in emissions provided it is sourced from pre-1990 plantations. The palm oil source is critical as product from plantations established on recently dried peat swamps or cleared tropical forest will in fact have higher greenhouse gas emissions than regular diesel due to factors such as land clearing.”
Biodiesel also has potential benefits to humans as it reduces the particulate matter that is released into the atmosphere when fuels are burnt.
Dr Beer added that further research was now needed to establish the viability of the biofuels industry and address some of the associated issues such as sustainability, technological improvements and economic feasibility. (ANI)
