"Biodiesel production is the process of producing the biofuel, biodiesel, through the chemical reactions of transesterification and esterification. Typical feedstocks for biodiesel production are soybean, canola/rapeseed, sunflower, cottonseed, palm seed and palm kernel, corn and mustard seed oil. Pork, beef and poultry fat and grease also can be converted to biodiesel. Biofuels-by their very nature-are renewable over a period of less than one year for those based on crops, crop residues, and animal wastes or about 35 years for those based on forest residues, as compared to the hundreds of millions of years for fossil fuels. Biodiesel is set for an unprecedented boom in the next few years because of government policies aimed at finding alternatives to fossil fuels, and helping the climate"-- Provided by publisher.