Is biodiesel "better" than gasoline with ethanol added?

Question

First, thank you very much to whomever can help me satisfy this curiosity.

I know that ethanol, especially in America (where I live), is not a great substitute due to the fact that it's produced with a dirtier and costlier product -- corn. Of course, corn is going to be used because American politicians (professional liars) subsidize it heavily. Additionally, ethanol reduces the efficiency of gasoline because it doesn't hold as much power when combusted. Still, ethanol lowers our need for foreign energy sources and cleans up gasoline a bit. All that said, is biodiesel any better then gasoline? Does biodisel have reduced efficiency when compared to regular diesel? What about economic and environmental impacts?

Any hard numbers or real research would be much appreciated. I look forward to picking the most informed answer!

Answer 1

Biodiesel is better than ethanol because diesel engines are already more efficient than gasoline engines (by about 30%). As far as I know, biodiesel is approximately as efficient as diesel.

http://www.biodiesel.org/pdf_files/fuelfactsheets/Performance.PDF

On top of that, many different crops can be made into biodiesel.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biodiesel#Yields_of_common_crops

The only downside to biodiesel is true of any biofuel - the more agricultural land you use to grow fuel crops, the less you have for food crops, and the higher the price of food will go. So we can't rely too heavily on biofuels, but on a small scale biodiesel is great.

Answer 2

Biodiesel can be made from many varieties of plant material and therefore shows the most potential. The most promising of them is algae! Imagine that! Algae can produce at least 250 times more biodiesel fuel per acre than soybeans.
There is a chart at the included website.
Diesel engines are more efficient than gasoline engines to begin with so they have a hard start.
Biodiesel can be burned in the farm equipment used to plant and harvest the plant material, the trucks or trains to haul it to the processing plant. Then the plant could use biodiesel furnaces to heat and process the algae or soybeans, and the truck to carry the finished biodiesel could also burn it. There would be no need to burn any foreign oil in the planting, harvesting or transporting of biodiesel.

Answer 3

Right ethanol is not going to produce more energy as gasoline but, at this time of year it is excellent to remove water condensate from the tank and lines ,so if it is very cold it doesn't bother u. Just a couple of gallons to the tank full.
Bil-diesel is very similar to regular diesel. It will produce the same energy for the same amount. Do not use gasoline or ethanol in the diesel. !!!!

Answer 4

When biodiesel is made from crops that don't require much fertilizer or water to grow, then it's a much better fuel than ethanol made from corn. In order to grow all that corn, you need a lot of fertilizer. In order to make fertilizer, you need to use a lot of natural gas, which emits CO2. Switchgrass, which is one thing you can make biodeisel out of, basically just grows on it's own in many parts of this country, so you don't have to use fertilizer at all.

Answer 5

yes it can be made from non food crops.

no bio diesel is more efficent as it keep the engine cleaner.

ethanol should be used in fuel cells not burned.
see "ethanol fuel cell"