Finding new technologies to power cars and trucks while at the same time improving the environment and lessening the dependence on foreign oil can be achieved with a visit to the past. The engine is a diesel and the fuel is biodiesel.

Biodiesel fuel is made from processed animal fats and oils or from vegetable oils from plants, in the U.S. mostly soybeans. The fuel is renewable and can be mixed with conventional, petroleum-based diesel fuel, or run in it's pure form. Diesel engines running biodiesel fuel require no modifications and emit fewer pollutants.

Biodiesel, in the U.S. at least, is in its infancy, despite the fact that inventor Rudolph Diesel used vegetable oil as the fuel of choice in his engine over 100 years ago.

Biodiesel fans are emerging around the country, including Butler County. Highlighted in a recent Butler Eagle article, Gabe Ciafre, a 2000 Knoch High School graduate can be seen as one of the pioneers of the U.S. biodiesel movement. Ciafre, now a senior at the University of Colorado, has operated a small-scale biodiesel production facility at his family's farm near Saxonburg.

Ciafre and other biodiesel proponents are pointing the way to the future because the fuel works on so many different levels. Diesel engines are more fuel efficient and generally get 30 percent to 50 percent more miles-per-gallon than comparable gasoline engines. Every gallon of biodiesel used provides a proportionate reduction in dependence on imported oil. Biodiesel is a renewable resource that can be produced in most regions of the United States. It can be produced from animal fats (thus reducing the liquid dumped into the country's waste stream) or from vegetable oil, generally from soybeans in the United States. On economic front, a large-scale movement to soybean-based biodiesel could provide a lucrative new market for America's farmers.

Viewed from every possible angle, biodiesel appears to be a win-win-win proposition. It should be only a matter of time, and possibly some federal coordination and financial incentives, before biodiesel takes off in the United States.

The current U.S. production of biodiesel fuel, estimated at about 20 million gallons, is dwarfed by the European production of 250 million gallons. The difference can be found in European government support for the fuel and the fact that nearly half of all the new cars sold in Europe are diesel-powered.

Biodiesel has many advantages over Ethanol, a corn-based fuel additive that benefits from significant tax incentives. Primarily, the difference is that Ethanol is much more energy intensive to produce while biodiesel offers a much more significant positive energy gain when production in considered.

If financial disparity created by Ethanol's politically motivated tax incentives were eliminated, biodiesel production and use would likely skyrocket, eventually reaching European levels, and having a real impact on the environment, the fuel efficiency of the national fleet of cars and trucks, and on the amount of oil imported from the Middle East.

Biodiesel is growing in popularity in the U.S., but the effort needs to be better coordinated and given government support as the most promising component of a progressive national energy policy.

With about 1 percent of U.S. passenger cars are powered by diesel engines, the growing interest in biodiesel comes at a perfect time. Federal law mandates a dramatic drop in the sulfur content of diesel fuel by 2007. Low sulfur fuel provides less lubrication for engines, but even a small percentage of biodiesel in the fuel mix will more than make up for the lubrication difference, ultimately offering longer engine life and reduced harmful emissions.

With cleaner diesel fuel on the horizon in the U.S., carmakers can soon begin to introduce diesel-powered cars and light trucks and SUVs. As the modern, high-tech, clean-burning diesel engines begin to appear on U.S. highways, the market for biodiesel will surely grow and a new era of transportation will evolve as dependence on foreign oil is reduced.

- J.L.W.III