What are the disadvantages of biodiesel?

Question

To me, it seems that biodiesel is a great solution to petrol. It's clean, cheaper than petroldiesel, and completely renewable. And to make things even better, if we used algae grown in marginal lands (desert), 0.3% of the surface of America could supply our energy needs.

So, it seems too good to be true. What are the inconveniences to a pure biodiesel or a biodiesel-electric hybrid solution?

Answer 1

They smell like fries. People in America are already fat enough. We don't need to drive around smell fries and pull into the nearest drive thru.

Seriously though, its main drawback is it has to be used in a diesel engine. They are louder and have worse performance numbers than gasoline engines. Other than being noisy and a little slower it's a pretty good choice.

Answer 2

There needs to be some more runtime testing done for variations in chemistry, cleanliness, lubricity, etc. Generally, yes, biodiesel is good.
Disadvantages: Gives even more power to agribusiness, not to actual farmers, centralizes and concentrates power in a few hands, just like the current commodity markets are doing.
The .3% of 'marginal' lands argument is naive at best. There's a reason these lands are marginal, and it usually involves water availability or terrain. I don't believe the number, for one thing, since the only sustainable power source to create this algeal life force is the sun, at about 600 W/m^2, and some kind of feed stock to keep them alive. Where does the feed stock come from? What about minerals, trace elements, etc., to keep the algae alive and producing biofuel?
More importantly, what are we actually doing with all the energy we produce now? Seems to me it just gets wasted cooling houses in places that don't need people, transporting cars to the city and back every day, and creating advertising to sell stuff that people didn't want without the advertising.
Conservation first.

Answer 3

Although eliminating the need to import oil is a great goal, you still have to worry about the air polution. Living in a city uses less energy. More centralized distribution of goods means less diesel is used and mass transportation usually works better so ya don't need a car.

Answer 4

Well, it is a great solution, (not sure about your algae thing), but the disadvantage (is it really?) is that in order for bio-diesel to be economical each individual has to do it themselves, or in a co-op group. The effort to to get the oil, (whether SVO [that gets 'spensive] or WVO), and do all the physical labour (or not depending on the efficiency of your processor) is what the pumps charge you for (not to mention they overprice for using soy-bean oil, and that it is eco-friendly). If you do it yourself all you pay for is NaOH and Methanol (depending on your fomula). Send me an e/m to respond to if you'd like to know more on this theory.

Answer 5

I disagree on cost of bio diesel. The few stations I have been to that sell it, it is much more expensive then petrol diesel. That may just be because it is in short supply at the moment. I would think fuel power ratio in high performance demanding vehicles.

Answer 6

at the moment, availability of fuel, engines and having enough land/water to grow the crops used for biodiesel

Answer 7

I am an expert in bio-diesel.

Other than the slightly higher cost, as long as you run a blend of bio-diesel and regular diesel, there are NO disadvantages to bio-diesel. It is allllllll good.