Biofuels

[michigandon]

The house I grew up in had a fuel oil furnace and the tank was in the basement. Guess what, I'm still alive and kickin'!

Lotsta folks have/had setups like that in cold climates. If you plan on using B99 in your furnace in the winter it's an especially prudent thing to do.

 

[Schultz]

Yep, it's GE Wacker, very helpful and knowledgeable people there. They didn't recommend running above b50 for the furnace yet. They're experimenting with additives to see what runs best above b50 for home heat. I said I didn't mind experimenting, and I would have the tank half gone by the time things started getting cold again, since I use it to heat my hot water too. My ratio after fill ended up at about b52. I'll post how it runs after a few weeks, we still have some cold nights with frost for maybe another 2-3 weeks.

As far as clogging, I don't think even b20 would do much. My fuel oil tank is over 20 years old before I started using B20 this year, the Kubota bx is only three years. I pulled the filter last night on the furnace just to see if there was anything on the filter or in the cup. There was about 3 tablespoons of black liquid in the bottom of the filter cup that I poured out, but the filter wasn't clogged. Also when I changed the filter a couple years ago with high sulfur fuel it stunk up the basement for a while. There was very little smell to this fuel, I like that and the wife didn't even notice I did the change.

 

[5030]

I looked at the last post first and assumed GE Wacker was Wacker Silicone in Adrain, Mi. Wacker has polluted the River Raisin Watershed with their chemical sludge.

I think the place glows an night. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[Schultz]

Nope GE Wacker is a different company, but it's a small community around us and with a name like wacker, I would imagine they're likely related.

As far as the furnace goes I did have to make some adjustments. I just couldn't get the furnace to burn smoothly. At first I thought it was the fuel didn't mix well and figured it would go away once it got warm, but it didn't or it clogged the filter. I just couldn't adjust the the air down enough, it was like the blower was blowing the flame out. It was burning smokey and I couldn't tune it with the air adjustment. I went up one nozzle size from .65 to .75 gph. Once I did that I was able to get a clean burning flame and quiet furnace. Anyone have any ideas why the fuel/air mixture needed to be adjusted? My thoughts are the viscosity is much thicker with higher bio and a .65 gph nozzle becomes something like .5 gph? When I drew 5 gallons out of the tank for the tractor it definitely seems thicker than standard diesel. By the way .65 is the smallest that is recommended in the furnace manual.

 

[butzkeg]

Ok, good, I see there are a lot of Michiganders chiming in on this one. So can I just switch to running B-20 on both my JD 4300 and my 04.5 Duramax with no changes to the fuel system and engine? A local place will deliver B-20 to me for $2.47 a gallon, which is even cheaper than the off-road dyed.

Thanks in advance.

 

[mattn]

I am not from your neck of the woods, but Ive run a lot of BD through a Duramax, TDI, and tractor....

B20 should not pose any problems for you. Just to be on the safe side watch those cold (30F) temps.

Also make sure that the fuel is clear. It is a good indicator of quality.

 

[michigandon]

$2.47 a gallon??? Man, I need to get a bulk tank at my place.

 

[Schultz]

My neighbor has a Powerstroke Ford that he uses to tow a number of things. He runs the B20 in the winter and B99 in the summer. He claims he won't go back because he can't stand the smell that regular fuel has compared to bio. Besides b99 is cheaper than regular diesel with the subsidy. He fills up at GE Wacker in Manchester.

GE Wacker claims to be the largest distributor and seller of bio-diesel in Michigan. If you can get them to deliver, I would recommend them for price and quality. They claim that any bio-diesel in the area is likely coming from them regardless of who sells it, they may not make the blend but provide the base bio stock for the blend. They're buying it by the train car tanker.

 

[LBrown59]

I just bought <font color="red">R E D </font> diesel for $2.50

 

[coffeeman]

Heard an ad for 60 minutes tv show. They are going to run something on alternative fuels. I'm guessing it's about bio fuel, but they didn't really say. I'm going to tune in. Popular Mechanics magazine ran a nice article about alternative fuels; last month or month before. It is a nice outline on a lot of different kinds of energy.

Cheers....Coffeeman