Glossary of Biodiesel Terms

Biodiesel - a non-petroleum-based diesel fuel consisting of short chain alkyl (methyl or ethyl) esters. The name "biodiesel" has been given to transesterified vegetable oil to describe its use as a diesel fuel.

FAME - Biodiesel is made up of long-chain fatty acid methyl esters (FAME) obtained from renewable lipids such as those in vegetable oils or animal fat

Transesterification - the process of exchanging the alkoxy group of an ester compound with another alcohol. These reactions are often catalyzed by the addition of an acid or base.

SVO - Straight Vegetable Oil & PPO - Pure Plant Oil - both are not by products of other industries.

WVO - Waste Vegetable Oil, by product of typically the fast food industry for instance high volume deep fat fryers.

"B" Factor - a system designed to state the amount of biodiesel in any fuel mix

B100 - pure biodiesel

B20 - a blend of 20 percent biodiesel with 80 percent petroleum diesel

The Kyoto Protocol

Although not an official biodiesel body the Kyoto Protocol or Agreement deserves mention as it embodies the key principle of reducing greenhouse gases.

The Kyoto Protocol is a protocol to the international Framework Convention on Climate Change with the objective of reducing greenhouse gases in an effort to prevent anthropogenic climate change.

It was adopted on 11 December 1997 by the 3rd Conference of the Parties, which was meeting in Kyoto, and it entered into force on 16 February 2005. As of May 2008, many of the countries signed up are required to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to the levels specified for each of them in the treaty The United States is the only developed country that has not ratified the treaty and yet it is one of the significant greenhouse gas emitters.

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