Biodiesel is:

• Renewable.
• Offers drastically reduced emissions nearly across the board.
• Offers approximately 80% reduction of greenhouse gas versus diesel fuel.
• Is grown by American farmers.
• Offers economic benefits for the American economy where funds are currently placed with foreign governments.
• Offers energy security.
• Is better for your engine due to increased lubricity.
• Offers relatively few drawbacks that are continually decreasing with new technology for quality, efficiency in production, and for cold weather.

In 1999, before he got into building, converting, and driving performance biodiesel vehicles, Andre Shoumatoff, our lead agent, worked for as a climate change researcher in Washington D.C., and from 2000-2001 was University of Vermont's first "climate change coordinator."  These experience convinced him that climate change is one of the largest economic threats to the United States and to the economic and political stability of the world, and the rest of our staff shares his deep concern.

However, we have always been into cars (and general vehicle technologies), while attempting to maintain our environmental principles.  Biodiesel Motor Proejcts believes commitment to automobile technology does not always have to be "bad" for the environment.  Our business is to provide solutions for performance vehicle projects who want to be environmentally responsible.

In the late nineties we started to closely follow the debate about the role of cars in global warming and possible shifts in automobile technology that were being discussed.  Our conclusion is that there is no single technology that all the big car manufacturers should universally adopt.  But at the same time, it was clear to us that biodiesel fuel is a clear winner versus ethanol, natural gas, gasoline-electric, hydrogen gas, hydrogen fuel cell, and most other vehicle technologies that are on the market and in development.  That said, each of these technologies has something unique to offer. 

Biodiesel Motor Projects embraces a number of "alternative fuel" and other environmentally friendly technologies.  But the majority of our projects and our expertise are in biodiesel. Biodiesel, being a form of diesel, made from the oils of live, growable plants, it is the easiest alternative to petroleum to implement, because you simply plant it, harvest, it, process it, and put it in a diesel-powered vehicle.  Furthermore, biodiesel fuel is renewable, is grown principally by American farmers, offers energy security, and reduces our dependence of foreign oil, which has roughly doubled since 1970 while America has not been able to significantly increase domestic production.  [ Click here for more information about energy security from the National Biodiesel Board (Adobe Acrobat PDF format).]

Biodiesel is also the first and only alternative fuel to have a complete evaluation of emission results and potential health effects submitted to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) under the Clean Air Act Section 211(b).  The following chart shows some of the benefits of biodiesel fuel versus traditional diesel fuel.  Image and data are from the National Biodiesel Board's fact sheet on biodiesel emissions (Adobe Acrobat PDF format).

For more information on diesel engine technology and the environment, click here read our article "Why Diesel Technology?"