Biodiesel Key Terms

Think beyond convention for fuel success with biodiesel key terms

Business people, soccer parents and vacation-goers--all are people who pull into a gas station on a daily basis to fill up their car with petroleum-based fuel. With the onslaught of people concerned about bettering the environment, many consumers are looking to use biodiesel.

Biodiesel not only reduces the air pollution put out by the vehicle, it also enhances economic stability by reducing America's reliance on the foreign fuel market. A few select biodiesel key terms will help a beginner producer become more familiar with the flow of the industry.

 

Jatropha

The oil from the seeds of this Asian shrub is used to make biodiesel.
Try: Learn about Jatropha in the glossary at Marshall House. Explore the use of Jatropha in biodiesel production at Jatropha Curcas.

Titration

Titration is the determination of the acidity of waste vegetable oil in order to properly measure the amount of base to add to the biodiesel.
Try: Discover titration and learn how to complete the process at Journey to Forever.

Transesterification

Transesterification is the process of creating biofuel from oil and ethanol or methanol with the presence of a catalyst.
Try: Biodiesel-Fuel.co.uk thoroughly explains transesterification. Scroll to the middle of the University of Strathclyde for a process map of creating biodiesel fuel to see how transesterification fits into flow.

Waste vegetable oil, WVO, straight vegetable oil, SVO

Waste vegetable oil, also known as WVO, is used vegetable oil that is intended to fuel a modified vehicle or transestered into biodiesel. This oil often comes from restaurants. New oil that is used in making biodiesel is called straight vegetable oil, or SVO.
Try: For information on waste vegetable oil, refer to Grist Magazine's glossary of biodiesel terms. Explore Global Stewards for more details on the use of waste vegetable oil in biodiesel production. Fusel discusses straight vegetable oil in depth.

Ethanol and methanol

Ethanol and methanol are chemicals used in the production of biodiesel. Ethanol is grain based and methanol is wood based or made from natural gas.
Try: For information on ethanol and methanol and how they pertain to biodiesel processing, go to Oregon.gov.

Ester

The combination of acids and alcohol creates a bi-product known as esters. Biodiesel is an ester and is either ethanol or methanol based.
Try: Explore ester and how the ester oil is used at ExxonMobil. Learn how esters fit into the production of biodiesel at Oilgae.

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