environmental information of the week

Some stuff about biodiesel:

biodiesel sales in the United States increased from 500,000 gallons in 1999 to 75 million gallons in 2005
biodiesel comes in many forms, and is often mixed with petrol diesel (a mixture containing 20% biodiesel and 80% petrol diesel is called B20)
biodiesel reduces net carbon dioxide emissions by 50-70% when compared to gasoline, and by 70-80% when compared to petroleum diesel, depending on whom you ask and on the energy used to manufacture it
harmful emissions in general are much lower with biodiesel compared to gasoline, although nitrogen oxide emissions are slightly higher (10-25% higher than petrol diesel)
biodiesel, as commonly produced today, is not renewable: methanol is predominantly used instead of ethanol to lower the viscosity of the final product, and the source of the methanol is generally fossil fuels
unless energy use decreases significantly, biodiesel is not a long-term solution: some estimates say that 90% of the arable land in the U.S. would need to be devoted to biodiesel source production for biodiesel to replace petroleum use

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