Wow, is that the highest concentrate that you've been able to find?
I've nearly finished my tank of B50 and am thinking about going up and filling up with more B100 despite it being wintertime. I love the stuff. Makes the engine nice and smooth, healthy sounding. And the exhaust smell doesn't burn your nose. The weather rarely drops below freezing here in Seattle so the high cloud point isn't really an issue for me.

 

One of them has a B100 tank, but they only want to sell it in bulk.

 

Hey Kwik, in Washington state what is the normal to find? B5,B20, etc.. just wondering what the independant station in point roberts will be carying.

 

I bought my batch from an independant that makes it from WVO for $2.20 a gallon when Dino was over $3.00. That was a couple of months ago now and haven't needed to call him back yet. He sells it by the 55 gallon drum only, you pump. That's fine with me, I bring my transfer pump with me, pump it out and give him his barrel back.
Other alternatives in the Seattle area are more expensive, north of $3.00 for B-100 at Laurelhurst oil. Lot's of VW TDI's pull in there all the time. I've never looked for B-20 but I am sure it's around. I just make my own with the barrel and then drive to the station and fill it up the rest of the way.

 

ok here I go again, By all means run Biodiesel it is the best thing you can do for your engine. It adds lubricity and solvency, and reduced emmissions. This is where most people stop. You will need extra filters as the first thing you should do is replace your old filter (to avoid the bio breaking up what is in the filter and sending it to your engine). Run the Bio till that filter plugs up (this will depend on how old the vehicle is and how much Dino-Diesel has been put through it). This is not a good winter fuel and has a very low gell point (20 degrees for soy and 4 degrees for canola/rapeseed). There are additives that help, but none except Primrose 4033 (still under testing) has shown any significant improvements (they tout -16 degrees on rapeseed). Please read the information www.biodieselcommunity.org before you attempt to run any Bio, unless you have an expert near you that you can go to when things happen, and they will.

Not that I have managed to scare the living He double hockey sticks out of you, know this, the government has been running B20 (80% Petroleum based Diesel and 20% Biodiesel made from soy) for years now with no significant drawbacks. So in short unless you live in the colder climates like me you can run B100 all year round.

On to the feedstock issue, we now know that we cannot produce enough feedstock with the land area we currently have (the USA is too small to replace all fuel consumption in vehicles not to mention its use in home heating applications). There is an initiative that has been showing great results that derives feedstock (oil) from Algae, and this has show as much as 1000 times the yield per acre as regular feedstock. Note that Algae must grow in water, so the acre referred to here is a pond of the same size. I have alot I can go into, but I will stop here and let you ask questions.

 

I've been reading about svo in cold weather and I am going to wait til temps stay above 30. Then I will fill my 500 skid w/ b20 and run that til fall. I asked at the Farm Progress Show and got alot of different answers on cold weather use. From blending w/ #1 to using diesel anti gel. I saw where a guy tried different blends in his freezer and I don't recall anything working below about 15 F.

 

How much bulk?

 

You can run Rapeseed derived biodiesel down to around 10 degrees. There are additives out there, that say they will work down to below 0 temps, but none have worked so far. I tried the Primrose 4033 and at 10 percent it still gelled, but did not go white (weird result). the Bio that I mixed 3 ml to 250ml bio is now developing white chunks of something (I am not a chemist so anyone who is chime in). I run B20 all winter without so much as a hiccup.

 

I ran Biodiesel in an old 85 Jetta as a test subject, unfortantly the thing chunked before it got into real winter weather here in Ohio. However, it did make the smell go away (i used new veggie oil, it was on sale at the store :P) I did have to replace a fuel filter becasue of the 20+ years of running dino diesel from the previous owner (I had bought the car only a year ago). The car was quieter and ran more smoothly than it did when I was running the regular diesel out. I would've liked to have kept it around longer to try some cold weather heating meathods to see if it'd work with the Biodiesel.

I would like to see a diesel Ranger again, I know that Ford made them from 84 to 87, but I have yet to see any beyond that point. Due to space restrictions the biggest vehicle that I can get is the Ranger, else I'd get the 250 diesel.

Biodiesel Panther

 

Didn't ask. Once it became obvious that he didn't want to unlock the cage just to fill my truck I took my money on down the road.

 

SVO is not Biodiesel. That's virgin veggie oil. It's possible that whomever could have been talking about mixing veggie with diesel, not blending biodiesel. Two different things.

B100 should probably be good to about 40 degrees or so. B20 down to about 0 I believe. My Excursion had a full tank of B20 with the outside temps being 8 degrees, never had a problem. This is with B20 Soy Diesel.

You want to check what kind of oil it was made from, hydronated will yield different results vs non-hydronated; as well corn vs canola.

 

I go pretty far out of my way and pay a little more for B-20. Like the smell and my 6.9 seems to run a little quieter. Only thing is, it stays pretty cold where I am, usually not below zero but 20 below is possible. Last winter, I somehow wound up with some water in my fuel, and it seems the injection pump was ruined by some of this water freezing and expanding; is that possible? Anyway, after replacing the pump it ran fine, but I'm a little nervous about this winter. I added a good bit of anti-gel and anti-freeze but am I pushing my luck to use the B-20 at all in winter?

 

I am not certain how far B20 will go but I personally dont think you should have a problem in MA. So far temps have been as low as about 3F in the Detroit area and I have had no issues. That's with Soy B-20.

Winter fuel blend is nothing more then Kerosene mixed with #2 fuel.

As far as water ruining the injection pump, well I can say from what I have gathered water in your fuel is like adding acid to your injectors. Not certain on the 6.9, but I think the pump is lubricated by the fuel itself, and water naturally is not a lubricant. Thats one thing that is pushed when running Veggie is to make sure to Dewater it at least twice to make sure you have all the water out or.... dun.....dun.dun....

 

It went down to 11 last night so today should tell me something - do you mean that the B20 has to be de-watered? I didn't think so. How do you do it?

 

I've been using biodiesel for 7 years here in central Michigan. My fuel supplier for the farm has a blend which is a premium fuel with 5% bio. No problems with jell up at -15. No problems starting.It has a cetane rating of 51 VS 40 for #2. Runs a whole lot better that #2 in older equipment. My old semi with a cummins335 purs like cat and doesn't hardly smoke. i was using B20 until we got out 04 Ford. Because of the warranty issue I backed off on the bio. I've never had a water problem so I think water might be coming from the supplier/dealer your using. Especially if they use above ground tanks for storage.