Plant Oils as Fuels : Present State of Science and Future Developments

Among renewable energy resources, Biodiesel fuel made from rapeseed is of special importance in Europe. Economical, technological, ecological and toxicological arguments have been advanced implying that, at present, Biodiesel is at best just a "niche" product that can only compete with traditional fossil diesel fuel because of significant tax incentives. Given the present state of knowledge in these very different areas, the decisive question to be asked is whether the competitiveness, and thus marketability, of Biodiesel can be enhanced by biotechnological manipulations of the rape plant.

This volume contains the papers presented at the Symposium having the same name held in Potsdam, Germany, February 16-18, 1997. The symposium was intended as a forum for economists, engineers, ecologists and toxicologists to present and exchange their ideas for improving the product Biodiesel and to discuss these views with expert plant bioscientists. The challenge for the latter was and will be to determine whether biotechnical methods can be applied safely to introduce new properties into the rape plant, an example for a number of other plants also suitable for production of renewable energy. The properties concerned are those which will improve the product Biodiesel fuel economically, technologically and especially toxicologically such that it will then possess those characteristics identified as the most desirable by the scientists. It was, therefore, not the goal of the symposium to evaluate Biodiesel as a form of energy under the present conditions, but rather to find an answer to the question of the chances Biodiesel will have in the market of the future.