Can biodiesel help slow “global warming”?
A 1998 biodiesel lifecycle study, jointly sponsored by the US Department of Energy and the US Department of Agriculture, concluded biodiesel reduces net CO² emissions by 78 percent compared to petroleum diesel when methyl alcohol is used as a feedstock. Biodiesel produced from biomass-derived ethyl alcohol can have close to a 100% net carbon emission reduction compared to petroleum fuels. This is due to biodiesel’s closed carbon cycle. The CO² released into the atmosphere when biodiesel is burned is recycled by growing plants, which are later processed into fuel.
