Filed under: Biodiesel, Diesel, Etc., Vegetable Oil
Study shows that biodiesel fumes are less nasty than diesel
Some weeks ago we posted an article about a German university comparing the fumes produced from both a diesel-powered engine and one fuelled by Straight Vegetable Oil (SVO) which showed that diesel fumes were more dangerous. In the end, however, the study affirmed that it depended more on the engine tuning than the fuel itself.
Nevertheless, a new study shows that that diesel exhaust is far more damaging to our health than exhaust from biodiesel. The research, made by a team from Deakin University's Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology and at the Institute of Sustainability and Innovation, Victoria University (Australia), exposed cultured human airway cells to both fumes and studied the effects.
The worst effect came from the particullates that diesels emit. Whereas biodiesel also produces particullates, the latter were less dangerous. According to Prof. Leigh Ackland, head of the study, "Our research found that the particulate matter from diesel exhaust stimulated a 'death pathway' response that the body uses to dispose of damaged cells. This response caused the airway cells to fuse together and die. We saw hardly any cell death after treatment with biodiesel particulates"
Then she concludes: "It is clear that breathing in diesel fumes is going to have a far more detrimental effect on our health than biodiesel. Given the level of cell death we have found, diesel exhaust could be the cause of respiratory disorders such as asthma and could even be implicated in cancer."
[Source: Nature via Biopact, thanks to William for the tip]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
rgseidl 2:44PM (9/13/2007)
Well, perhaps it's worth pointing out that Australian diesel still contains a lot of sulfur whereas biodiesel is naturally sulfur free. Fuel sulfur is known to glom onto soot particles and oxidize to sulfuric acid. The combination of large surface area and low pH is known to be especially damaging to all kinds of living organisms.
Ergo, it's not just the number and size distribution of PM emissions but their chemical compostion which matters.
Europe and the US are in the process of switching to diesel grades with ultra-low sulfur content (10 and 15ppm limit, respectively). Much of this transition has already happened, the last stragglers will have to fall in line by 2010.
Moreover, most new diesels sold in Europe and all T2B5 to be sold in the US feature wall-flow DPFs, which reduce tailpipe PM emissions by ~98%. For all of these reasons, be careful not to extrapolate this study to those markets - its conclusions may not apply there.
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Xavier Navarro 2:45PM (9/13/2007)
Good point, Rafael
We could assume that it was the same kind of diesel.
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Nathan 10:33PM (9/13/2007)
Australia has recently moved to low-sulfur diesel, which is in line with Euro IV regulations at 50 ppm of sulfur. That will change to 10 ppm from 2009, but regardless, any move to biodiesel (with no sulfur) would be a positive move.
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Monkey 1:08PM (12/21/2007)
Please correct your repeated misspellings of "particulates" - there is only a single L in the word.
Anybody doing a web search for information on particulates will NOT find any of your articles because of this repeated error.
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