Why Biodiesel as opposed to other alternatives?
There are other ways of eliminating your transport impact but none as convenient as Biodiesel which can go straight into most diesel engines (or any mix of fossil diesel and Biodiesel) without the need to do any conversions! With Biodiesel of EN14214 Standard many vehicles on the road are warranted for the use of 100% Biodiesel. It is recommended you only buy Biodiesel with this specification on it unless you know the producer. For legal reasons though I must say that: Biodiesel is not suitable for all vehicles – consult vehicle manufacturer before use. That said, Rudolf Diesel designed the diesel engine to basically take this kind of fuel!
There are many other issues relating to Biodiesel such as its strategic value in oil dependence, stimulating jobs in agriculture, improved health due it not being carcinogenic (unlike fossil diesel), and so on, but the main reason for it really is because it is carbon neutral and we are about to kill off some species forever, which is unforgivable. The World Wildlife Fund identified some of the species endangered with extinction as:
Giant Panda
Polar Bear
Indian Tiger
Reindeer
Beluga Whale
Rockhopper Penguin
Snow Finch
Harlequin Frog
Monarch Butterfly
Grizzly Bear
The UK potential for domestic Biodiesel supply without large implications on our land use is about 7% of our current transport fuel consumption. Before we reach the 7% figure, there will be fuel cell vehicles for sale off the shelf (Ford have promised a fuel cell vehicle on the market by 2010). In theory though, we could supply all our transport fuel needs from biofuels because oil produced from from algae is also theoretically possible enabling a 10 fold increase in yield per unit area. Factor in some conservation and it is achievable.