Biodiesel feed stock's good and bad

Biodiesel can be made from a large range of feedstocks.

In Australia the most common feedstocks are:

• used cooking oil
• tallow
• imported palm oil
• canola.

The research concludes that using pure biodiesel or blending biodiesel with standard fuel can reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the transport sector.

The greenhouse gas savings do however depend on the feedstock used to produce the biodiesel.

The highest savings are obtained by replacing base diesel with biodiesel from used cooking oil.

Palm oil can produce up to an 80 per cent saving in emissions provided it is sourced from pre-1990 plantations.

The palm oil source is critical as product from plantations established on recently dried peat swamps or cleared tropical forest will in fact have higher greenhouse gas emissions than regular diesel.

The use of biodiesel also reduces the particulate matter released into the atmosphere as a result of burning fuels, providing potential benefits to human health.

Further research into this area is required to establish the large scale viability of biofuels in Australia.

CSIRO, as part of the Energy Transformed National Research Flagship, is undertaking an extensive research program into alternative fuels such as biodiesel to assess possible biophysical, social and economic impacts of their production and adoption.

Read more about the Energy Transformed Flagship's work in Developing solutions for low emission fuels.