• Biodiesel production uses a third less energy than petroleum diesel production.
• For each unit of energy input, biodiesel creates 3 or more energy units.
• Biodiesel produces more BTUs per gallon than any other alternative fuel.

Compare the differences between how much energy is created when producing these top four fuel sources:

Joint study by U.S. Dept of Energy (DOE) and U.S. Dept of Agriculture (USDA), 1998.

A 1998 joint USDA and DOE 3.5-year lifecycle study compared the cradle-to-grave inventory of materials used, energy resources consumed, and air, water and solid waste emissions generated by petroleum diesel fuels and biodiesel. This allowed for a total lifecycle costs and benefits analysis for both fuels. The study revealed that the fossil fuel energy required to produce biodiesel from soybean oil is only a fraction (31%) of the energy contained in one gallon of biodiesel. The total fossil energy efficiency ratio for biodiesel was found to be 3.21 versus around .9 for fossil diesel.

In other words, for every unit of energy needed to produce biodiesel, 3.2 units of fuel energy results -- or biodiesel requires only 0.32 units of fossil energy to make 1 unit of fuel. And soybean oil is actually on the low side of energy efficiency ratios as compared to the list of crops available for biodiesel production. In contrast, 1.1 units of fossil resources are needed to produce 1 unit of petroleum diesel, which creates a negative energy efficiency ratio. Biodiesel also outperforms other renewable alternatives, such as ethanol and hydrogen, both being net losers and consuming more energy than they produce.