Bio-Fuel Feedstocks

Feedstock is a term commonly used to describe any raw material required for the industrial process of making bio-fuels. The feedstocks we are concerned with come under the category of biomass feedstock, which includes any plant-derived organic matter. According to the U.S. Department of Energy’s definition, “Biomass available for energy on a sustainable basis includes herbaceous and woody energy crops, agricultural food and feed crops, agricultural crop wastes and residues, wood wastes and residues, aquatic plants, and other waste materials including some municipal wastes

Unlike in most industrial processes, bio-fuel feedstock comes from plants as they naturally photosynthesize solar energy into chemical energy. A simple explanation is that the stored chemical energy from the sun is released when this feedstock is burned.

To allay the concerns of environmentalists, most of the carbon dioxide emitted into the atmosphere when bio-fuels, including biodiesel, burn amounts, in large part, to a recycling of what was absorbed during plant growth. Therefore, the net production of greenhouse gases is substantially reduced.

The table below shows that biodiesel can dramatically reduce particulate matter emissions. Unburned hydrocarbons and carbon monoxide are also reduced, although they are not usually a problem with diesel engines.