CANOLA BIO DIESEL

Canola biodiesel is an environmentally- friendly, renewable energy source that could also produce cost savings for taxpayers and private businesses and is produced from farmers that grow canola.

Initial research conducted by the University of Saskatchewan and the AAFC Saskatoon Research Centre has found that each ton of renewable biodiesel fuel saves five times its weight in diesel fuel. As well, engines using biodiesel demonstrate wear rates as much as 50% lower than those using regular commercial fuels – effectively doubling engine life.

Canola is a member of the Brassica Family, which includes broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, mustard, radish, and turnip. It is a variant of the crop rapeseed. Grown for its seed, the seed is crushed for the oil contained within. After the oil is extracted, the by-product is a protein-richmeal used by the intensive livestock industry.
Canola is a very small seed, which means sowing depth must be controlled. The current sowing practice is to cover the seed lightly with soil, which provides more protection from drying out after germination.

Canola is generally sown in autumn and develops over winter, with flowers emerging in the spring and is harvested early summer. With a growing period of around 180-200 days climatic effects such as sudden heat waves can reduce yields and hot dry conditions can limit its oil content. Summer weather ensures low moisture (less than 6%) at harvest. Carry-in stocks of canola are minimal because of a lack of on-farm storage. Canola is a good rotational crop, acting as a break crop for cereal root diseases. However for disease-related reasons, a rotation period of 3-5 years is required for canola crops. of iodine in grams absorbed per 100 ml of oil is then the IV. The higher the IV, the more unsaturated (the greater the number of double bonds available) is the oil and the higher the potential to ‘gum up’ when used as a fuel in an engine. Though some oils have a low IV and are suitable without any further processing other than extraction and filtering, the majority of vegetable and animal oils have an IV which does not permit their use as a neat fuel.