Fuel standards The European biodiesel standard is EN14214. Commercially produced
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biodiesel should conform to this standard, but do check, The diesel fuel standard is EN590; this is the one that all the engine manufacturers use when testing engines and for emissions checking. EN590 allows for up to 5% additives, which is why all the engine manufacturers say you can add up to 5% per cent biodiesel without invalidating the engine warranty. The caveat is that the biodiesel additive must comply with EN14214.
What is biodiesel? Biodiesel is made from various organic base or feed stocks, including used cooking oil (UCO), virgin rapeseed, palm oil and peanut kernel oil. In the UK the feedstock is mainly rapeseed oil, some of which is recovered as UCO from caterers. Used or virgin vegetable oil should not be used until it has been through the Iransesterif teflon' process. Apart from food and water deposits, the vegetable oil contains glycol which is bad news for engines. Transesterification uses a catalyst such as methanol to convert the glycol-rich fatty acids to glycerine and methyl ether. Not all organic oils wit meet EN14214. Fatty Acid Methyl Ester (FAME) is the generic term for European standard blodlesel. Rapeseed oil is also called HME(rapQceed fatty acid methyl ester). In the UK, Greenergy is the only company currently producing bio-fuel using virgin rapeseed oil, Its competitors concentrate on UCOs sourced from the catering industry most of which is also rapeseed oil. There is not enough UK rapeseed oil grown to meet biodiesel demand.