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Biodiesel is an unconventional fuel similar to the 'fossil-fuel' diesel. Biodiesel can be produced from vegetable oil, animal oil etc via a process called transesterification. A major utility for biodiesel fuel is that it acts as a substitute to gasoline for use mainly in combustible vehicular engines.
However, like any promising solution to our depleting fossil fuels, there are both advantages and disadvantages of utilizing vegetable oil to run automobile engines. Here are some of the pros and cons of substituting vegetable oil as fuel.
Advantages of Using Vegetable Oil as Fuel
- The biggest advantage of using vegetable oil as a combustible fuel is that unlike other fossil fuels such as petrol and diesel, it is a form of renewable energy source. It is found in
abundance, and helps in recycling of waste vegetable oil. The kits which convert vegetable oil to combustible fuel that power the engine are easily available in the market. - Vegetable oil is a much cleaner resource as it produces greenhouse gasses in lower amounts as compared to the conventional fuels like petrol and diesel. This is one of the most important reasons that vegetable oil is widely being recommended.
- Vehicles that run on vegetable oil supposedly have high mileage than those which run on petrol and diesel. This allows one to save a lot of money considering the irregularity with which oil price changes.
- Vegetable oil is made locally almost all over the world and this reduces the necessity to buy oil from foreign markets.
- Vegetable oil is fairly safe to use and the odds of a vehicle catching fire in an accident are smaller.
Disadvantages of Using Vegetable Oil as Fuel
- The major problem in using vegetable oil as a fuel on a worldwide scale is the amount of money that will be needed to modify the engines in order to be compatible with the fuel. Most of the transformation kits that are available in the market are very costly.
- Vegetable oil can have
adverse effect on the performance of the engine if all the essential safety measures are not taken. It is important to properly set up a conversion kit so that the engine can run effortlessly. - Most companies do not provide warranty for cars that use vegetable oil as a combustible fuel source. This is one of the main reasons that vegetable oil has not found widespread acceptability in the world.
- Vegetable oils tend to solidify in cold temperature. People who have used vegetable oil as a fuel in their vehicles claim that it becomes harder to run the engine in cold weather.
These were some of the pros and cons of using vegetable oil as fuel. As you can see that the pros are much more significant than the cons, so it is important that we do not ignore vegetable oil as a fuel. Instead of researching for other options, we can try to solve the problems involved in the use of vegetable oils so that it can help solve the rising problem of energy crisis.
