Diesel engines – including freight and commuter trains, big rigs, and vehicles large and small –  drive economies worldwide. Most diesel engines can accept mixtures of diesel fuel and biodiesel without significant modification, further reducing their environmental impact.

Although the biodiesel industry has rapidly expanded in recent years, many vehicle operators may find the nearest refueling supply  too far away to make shipping the fuel in worthwhile. Additionally, while the biodiesel industry denies that a major shortage is a possibility, small-scale shortfalls in supply have been widely reported.

Furthermore, biomass sources for biodiesel production have been stressed by increased demand for food; even non-food stock biodiesel bases, such as used cooking grease, have been growing progressively harder to come by.

A new generation of smaller biodiesel production units may help to overcome many of these problems, by enabling creation of the fuel in more locations.  Products like Cavitation Technology's BioForce 9000 Reactor Skid System brings viable biofuel creation to a unit roughly the size of a small car, and capable of producing between 10 and 40 gallons of biodiesel per hour.  The unit can also utilize a variety of biofuel stocks, including degummed soybean oil, canola oil, tallow, yellow grease and coconut oil, at free fatty acid levels sometimes as high as 6%.

The breakthrough that enables production  in such a small physical spaces is the use of pressure-based nano-cavitation in improving the speed and efficiency of the stock-material to biodiesel conversion process. According to the company, the use of fluctuating pressures, instead of traditional agitation methods increases efficiency by more than 40%, while limiting the number of moving parts involved in the process. The end result is a smaller apparatus—the core unit of the BioForce 9000 can fit in the palm of your hand—and less energy lost during the biodiesel creation process.

Aside from saving energy, smaller units enable businesses of nearly any size to add onsite biodiesel creation capacity, eliminating the cost and environmental impacts of having biodiesel shipped to them. The technology, which is also being implemented in larger scale production facilities, introduces flexibility to the size of centralized biofuel production facilities, enabling them to scale production to meet fluctuating levels of supply and demand.

All told, these advances could increase the efficiency  and availability of biodiesel at a lower cost while combating climate change.