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Veggie Oil = Good Fuel, Not Perfect Fuel

I have noticed lately that many people who own veggie oil or other biofuel vehicles are under the false impression that their vehicles either literally emit nothing but a pleasant french fry smell or are, at the very least, totally carbon neutral. While I applaud the efforts of these people to combat global warming, I think everyone should understand the facts of the situation. Yours is not a perfect mode of transportation, biofuelers. Even puppy's breath contains carbon dioxide, people!

The National Outdoor Leadership school lays these facts on us:

Vegetable oil burned as fuel does not emit sulfur dioxide (SO2), a main compound in diesel responsible for acid rain. In addition to this 100% reduction in SO2, recycled vegetable oil fuel produces 78% less carbon dioxide (CO2), the dominant greenhouse gas responsible for global warming, 48% less carbon monoxide, a poisonous gas, 48% less asthma-causing particulate matter, and 80% less cancer-causing polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH's) than petroleum diesel.

That's good news, of course. I'm just saying that means they're still emitting 22% as much carbon dioxide as regular cars, which is not nothing.

People get the "zero carbon" idea because of this often repeated
belief, which is stated here by Greasecar's Michael Garjian:

"It's carbon neutral. When you burn vegetable oil, the gas contains carbon dioxide, but it's the same carbon dioxide...that was absorbed by the plant while it was growing."

I have to say I highly doubt this is a completely even equation, and I've seen no data to support this frequently repeated remark. It only has a chance of being true if the places where the fields that are planted were formerly barren wastelands, consuming no carbon dioxide. Sadly, this can be far from the case. There are cases where the countries are actually clear-cutting rainforest to plant oil palms which are used for biodiesel fuel. 

Again, I just want to emphasize, SYDW is not here to bum out these well-meaning environmentally-conscious drivers. I'm just here to lay a little science on you.
 
 

What can you do right now to help the environment? Drop a line to save some of nature's BioGems. 

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