Can biodiesel help mitigate “global warming?

A 1998 biodiesel lifecycle study, jointly sponsored by the US Department of Energy and the US Department of Agriculture,concluded biodiesel reduces net CO² emissions by 78 percent compared topetroleum diesel. This is due to biodiesel’s closed carbon cycle.The CO² released into the  atmosphere when biodiesel isburned is recycled by growing plants, which are later processedinto fuel.Is biodiesel safer than petroleum  diesel?Scientific  research confirms that biodiesel exhaust has a less harmful impact on human health than petroleum diesel fuel. Biodiesel emissions have decreased levels of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) and nitrited PAH compounds that have been identified as potential cancer causing compounds. Test results indicate PAH compounds were reduced by 75 to 85 percent, with the exception of benzo(a)an thracene, which was reduced by roughly 50 percent.

Targeted NPAH compounds were also reduced dramatically with biodiesel fuel, with 2-nitrofluorene and 1- nitropy renereduced by 90 percent, and the rest of the NPAH compound sreduced to only trace levels.