The BioDiesel Hate Thread

Plant based Bio-Fuel is not like a petroleum distillate. It is an ester, and by chemical compound a solvent. The Energy Density or BTU’s is lower than petro-diesel. The lubricity in bio-diesel is actually about twice petro-diesel.

Most problems with high concentration bio-diesel come from the solvent effect. Plugged filters as example. The bio-diesel is cleaning the trash left from the petro-diesel and other additives.

Up to about 20 percent blend should have no noticeable los in fuel mileage or power.
The most current testing results from the University of Iowa have shown lower soot and NOx for the average blends sold for on highway use.

Bio-diesel at 20 percent or less should have the same cold weather performance as diesel, as the higher concentration of Bio-Fuel goes up, more anti-gelling additive is needed.

I have run both Cummins and Detroit engines on 100 percent Bio-diesel. Fuel mileage was the only problem, if that, was down about 3 percent. Then when your only paying $1.40 a gallon, the cost/benefit ratio is in your favor.

Maintenance was a bit more. Have to keep top end up. Overhead every 100k.

 

I love Biodiesel , it cleans the fuel system out and has proven than even small % of it will greatly increase the lubrication... Which we need to badly with ulsd

 

Not to mention when Bio diesel first came out. It was damaging liners in the fuel tanks. I am all for helping farmers as it pertains to corn production, and the use of this in certain products. It is all those special interest, tree hugging environmentalist who want cleaner air. Maybe this should have been done decades ago. Now they are trying to fix decades of air pollution, before trying to fix the issue.

 

You do realize that biodiesel is what Rudolph Diesel designed his engine to burn. He wanted it to run on locally available fuels, and for farmers to grow their own fuel. When he showed off his engine at the 1900 World's Fair, it was running on peanut oil.

 

That may be but no diesel engine I've ever driven liked the stuff much, it gets worse fuel mileage and seems to have less power, but that's just my old crap maybe the new engines like it better.

 

Most biodiesel is made out of soybeans isn't it?

 

My old Mack runs just fine on everything I've ever dumped into the tanks. I've worked with companies that had much newer kitty cats in their trucks, fueled at the same pumps minutes apart, and ran with them until their trucks quit from allegedly "bad fuel". Some trucks are just pickier than others...

 

Soybean oil can produce bio fuel.
Almost any plant based oil can be used to make bio fuel.
Corn, peanut, palm kernel, castor beans.

 

Most Bio-diesel does have a lower BTU than petro-diesel, so a drop in performance could be expected in some engines.

The sad part here is that Bio-fuel is easy to make, at a low cost, is a sustainable product, has low emissions.
The lower BTU could be mitigated by some investment in minor engineering. Brazil started an alcohol fuel program back in the 70’s. The government and other agencies made the investment finding solutions to running a standard engine on 100 percent alcohol. You can thank them for “flex fuel” engines.