renewable energies

Why does bio diesel fuel have a larger energy density than petroleum?

We did an experiment where the energy density of bio diesel was much higher than the energy density of petroleum, and we have no idea why.

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This entry was posted on Thursday, March 26th, 2009 at 6:40 pm and is filed under Green Improvement Financing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

One Response to “Why does bio diesel fuel have a larger energy density than petroleum?”

1. Edward M on March 29th, 2009 at 12:46 am

   Diesel itself has a higher density than petroleum. This is due to its constituents.
   If you think about crude oil, its very thick and gloopy. This is because it is made up of a whole range of hydrocarbons, with very long chains. The longer the chain of hydrocarbon, the denser the substance (in theory!)
   To gain petrol from crude oil, the oil undergoes fractional distillation, where the oil is boiled, and the petrol constituents then separated from the rest. Petroleum tends to have much shorter chains than diesel, and so is less dense, and more fluid. Diesel is similar to vegetable oil, which as you know is quite thick, as the hydrocarbon chains are quite long.

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