B2 Biodiesel

[cowboydoc]

There is absolutely no negative effect to using biodiesel. The only thing biodiesel will do is make your tractor run better. It has increased cetane #'s, increased soot control and pollution from burning, increased lubrication, renewable, etc.

 

[Bob_Skurka]

cowboydoc . . . while my prior research into biodiesel does confirm all the good things you pointed out, there is one very minor issue to consider with biodiesel. That is the gel point of the fuel is about a degree or two higher than regular diesel. I don't consider this a real drawback as I treat my fuel against gelling in the winter anyway and I think the positive effects of biodiesel far outweigh this one very minor issue.

However, I think in the interest of being informed, people should be aware of it.

I just wish we could get it! Maybe soon?!?

 

[CTyler]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( There is absolutely no negative effect to using biodiesel. The only thing biodiesel will do is make your tractor run better. It has increased cetane #'s, increased soot control and pollution from burning, increased lubrication, renewable, etc. )</font>

I don't claim to be an expert on this but Biodiesel had less BTU's than regular diesel thus less power. This is probably not enough to notice but... how is the tractor going to run better?

 

[cowboydoc]

Burning diesel fuel creates soot and contaminants in the engine and thus the oil. Most diesel oils are formulated to help with this. As good as the oils of today are it's still a problem in hp and longevity. Biodiesel burns much cleaner than diesel. Also the newer engines are configured to burn more of the fuel, keep the fuel in the combustion chambers longer, route the gases through filters, etc. This creates alot of problems in the motors over time, especially in the newer tractors and vehicles.

Next is lubrication. A diesel engine relies on the diesel for lubrication. The older diesels lubrication is critical. The newer diesels it's still important but they can take less lubrication a little better than the older diesels because of design. Many of the diesels today, especially some of the cheaper machinery is still running on old technology and the diesel lubrication is critical for long life of the engine and the pumps.

 

[Egon]

And chances are the production byproducts will make good animal feed.

Egon

 

[CTyler]

I agree that it will run cleaner.

 

[wd45]

My understanding was that biodiesel yields better milage than regular diesel, but because it cost more the energy yield per dollar is probably less. I'm not sure of these facts, just what I've gleaned from biodiesel forums and they might be slanted in favor of biodiesel. Mr. Diesel designed the first diesel engines to run on vegetable oils I believe. Setting up a small co-op so that locals could contribute oil producing produce (crops) to be converted to oil, with the contributor getting back his contribution in oil (fuel) with the co-op taking a percentage to cover operating cost seems like an American thing to do! I just dont know what the scale of a production plant needs to be to be viable. Also oil producing crops would not need to be food grade and who cares if the fuel crops are bio-engineered or not. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Mike