BioDiesel Article

[Sean B]

This is an article from Blackstone Labs on BioDiesel, found it interesting so I thought I'd post it

Biodiesel: The Good and the Bad

Pros
Biodiesel can be used in existing engines, without modifications.

Biodiesel blends perform similarly to regular diesel in terms of power, torque, and fuel consumption.

It’s good for the environment: less emissions means less pollution.

Using biodiesel does not void the warranty of any major US engine manufacturer.

If you know what you’re doing, you can generally make it for .50 to .90 cents per gallon.

Cons
Biodiesel is a solvent, and in its pure form it will degrade older types of rubber used in engines made before 1993.

Cold weather can cloud (or gel) biodiesel, just like regular diesel.

Biodiesel is a solvent, so when it’s first introduced to an engine, it can release sludge or deposits that have built up, and you may need to replace your fuel filter. (sound familiar?)

Biodiesel can increase the price of filling your tank a little.

Some say using farmland to grow soybeans and other vegetables for fuel is a waste of land. In some areas rainforests may be cut down to grow crops for making biodiesel.


Now for the Article...

When Hurricane Katrina hit and gas prices jumped last year, I knew more than one person who slapped their forehead over gas prices and traded in their gas-guzzler for a more fuel-efficient vehicle. Of course, Katrina was not the end of the rise in fuel; lately prices have been inching back up to (and past, depending on where you live) $3.00 a gallon.
We love our cars and trucks—there’s no doubt about that. But with no end in sight to the ever-increasing fuel prices, many people are looking at what they can do to save a little cash when they fill up. If you drive a diesel, one of your alternatives is biodiesel. While it may not save you much money right now, any steps we can take to producing more fuel in the US is a positive step toward keeping fuel prices in check.

Understanding biodiesel
Any engine that runs on diesel #2 can run on biodiesel. If your engine takes regular gas, you can’t use biodiesel. Technically, biodiesel is the ester created when vegetable oil (usually soybean oil, but palm and other types of oil are also used) is mixed with an alcohol in the presence of a catalyst. The mixture is allowed to settle and separate out; the top layer is biodiesel, the bottom is glycerol. The biodiesel is washed to remove impurities before being filtered for use. Using a different method, algae can also be used to make biodiesel. (Algae yields up to 15,000 gallons of biodiesel per acre, compared to soybeans, which produce 60 gallons of biodiesel per acre.)
Biodiesel is becoming popular because it’s biodegradable and nontoxic. It contains no petroleum, so it creates fewer emissions when it’s burned: fewer emissions means less air pollution when it’s run in land-based engines, and less water pollution when it’s run in marine engines. You’ll hear terms like “B20” or “B5” thrown around when people talk about biodiesel—the number simply refers to the percentage of biodiesel being used (B20 is 20% biodiesel, 80% regular diesel). “Neat” biodiesel means the same thing as ordering your whiskey “neat”: it’s 100% biodiesel with nothing else thrown in.
So if biodiesel is based on vegetable oil, can you go out to McDonalds and get a free batch of used fryer oil to run in your new diesel engine? You could, but not before converting that used oil to biodiesel…and even then, we wouldn’t really recommend it unless you truly invest the time and energy into doing it right. Homebrewed biodiesel tends to not be very consistent in quality and you do use chemicals that can be dangerous. If you decide to make your own, there are plenty of “how to” websites out there for instruction. But be careful: as one homebrew site says, if you hurt, maim, blind, or kill yourself, it will make us very, very sad, but not liable.
Just like anything, there are people who love biodiesel and people who hate it. Varying opinions on the subject can be found all over the Internet, but a quick summary of the pros and cons is listed at the sidebar to the left.
Biodiesel is available in all 50 states, though availability is concentrated in the Midwest, where the crops that become the fuel are grown. But you can also get it in and around larger metropolitan areas in the mountain states and on the East and West Coasts.
As we mentioned before, biodiesel can be used in an engine that runs on #2 diesel. It runs in trucks, of course, but also boats, generators, air compressors, water heaters, kilns, tractors, irrigation pumps, and sawmills, to name a few others.

Biodiesel in your engine
So how will biodiesel affect your engine? We have seen many oil samples from people using it, though we have never conducted a study to determine scientifically how it performs. But other people have done tests, including the good people at the Agricultural Engineering Department at the University of Missouri-Columbia. They tested four 5.9L Cummins engines using varying blends (B1, B2, and B100) of biodiesel. Although the findings were not conclusive because some factors were not under the complete control of the researchers, the results suggested that using biodiesel caused the engines to wear a little better than they do when running regular diesel. To be specific, the levels of aluminum, iron, chrome, and lead were slightly lower in the engines running biodiesel. The study also suggested that the wear rates stayed the same regardless of what blend biodiesel was being used. You can read the study for yourself here:

http://bengal.missouri.edu/~pavt0689/En ... diesel.pdf

Our casual, unscientific observations here at Blackstone have been that engines running biodiesel wear just as well as those running regular diesel. But samples from people making their own biodiesel from waste vegetable oil are a completely different story. People don’t always specify whether they’re using biodiesel they bought at the pump or using biodiesel that they made themselves, but it’s fairly obvious when they are using a homebrew that they have not filtered very well. We’ll just say that, unless you really know what you’re doing, we don’t recommend it.
Biodiesel may never completely replace regular diesel fuel, as it would be difficult to grow enough crops to completely replace the nearly 55 billion gallons of diesel fuel consumed in the US yearly. But it’s a good start as an alternative, and it will likely be an important part in our search for ways to reduce our dependence on foreign fuel.

[Rawleigh]

I use either B20 or B100 in my truck and tractors. I love it. They run nuch smoother and quieter on it. I have to disagree about the warrantee part though. If they find a fuel related problem and you have greater than the amount of bio the engine manufacturer specifies, they will deny the claim. Ford will only allow B5 at this point, but I'm rolling the dice as i think it is a better product than the ULSD.

[mike ohlstein]

Are you brewing your own?

[Rawleigh]

I'm not. The product I use comes from a friends production plant, in fact it is the one that the President visited last year. Homebrew can be hard on engines if you are not very careful. The commercial product I use is made from virgin soy oil. As little as 2% bio will replace the lubricity lost to the sulfer removal process and make it very easy on the injectors and injrctor pumps. For boats I like the idea of bio because it is non toxic to the environment. In fact B100 does not require any special handling under DOT truck requirements. It is classified the same as cooking oil until you add a tablespoon of diesel, then all the standard diesel transport requirements kick in. The downside is that Bio is more hydroscopic than diesel and it also oxidizes at a faster rate, although I haven't had any problems with my tractor or other equipment that sits over the winter with B20 in them. I wouldn't leave B100 in the boat over the winter, but would run the tank down and refill with straight diesel for storage.

[STeveZ]

"Biodiesel is a solvent" Has anyone confirmed or denied its safety in older fiberglass fuel tanks?

Can it be mixed with existing diesel in your fuel tank? And vice-versa? (I would assume so.)

[Rawleigh]

Mixing it with existing diesel is no problem, it just makes a blend. Haven't heard of tank problems with Bio yet.

[Dave Kosh R.I.P.]

Do you currently use it in your B31? Do you have a FB tank? Dave K

[Rawleigh]

No. Unfortunately I'm still gas. I would use it if I were diesel though, even knowing that there are some tradeoffs as far as shelf life, etc. I use it in my truck and tractor.

[rikdatek]

A good sorce of information on marine applications for biodiesel:

http://www.cytoculture.com/Biodiesel%20Handbook.htm