Yo Truck Makers, Pay Attention!

The Time to Put Biodiesel In Your Tank Is Now!

I think that a product that cuts pollution dramatically, increases truck engine’s efficiency with Ultra Low Sulfur Diesel, weans us off foreign oil in a very small way and can be made from numerous renewable sources, would be in high demand across the US.  That miracle product is biodiesel and in many ways it meets and exceeds all of those expectations. 

Also, strangely enough, it is hailed almost unanimously as a saving technology by schools, unions, truckers, farmers, environmentalists, doctors and a world class country western singer.  And yet, just as strangely, it is not being used nearly as much as all that adulation would imply for a very simple reason, engine manufacturers are ambiguous about the fuel and consequently the large trucking firms hesitate to allow the blends into their fleet.

If the majors won’t buy, the rank and file, and smaller companies hesitate to climb on board. After all, most independent truckers and small fleet owners buy their units from the larger groups, who then turn around and buy new units. Just to allay the suspense, all engine manufacturers allow biodiesel in their engines in blends of 5% or less. Anything above that is tolerated but not recommended, which is a flat shame on them because the benefits are so transparently positive.

So What Is Biodiesel?

First a quick chemistry lesson, biodiesel is not vegetable oil, it’s an actual diesel fuel made from vegetable oil and or animal fats mixed in with methanol, scientifically manipulated under strict temperature, dosage and pressure control in a process called transesterification.  At the end of the process almost all the methanol is separated out, glycerin drops to the bottom and sold and the biodiesel is pumped off. What is called biodiesel is the same color as #2 diesel, smells faintly of olive oil and will blend completely with existing petroleum diesel. It can increase NoX in the higher blends, but not to a noticeable degree, and decreasing CO2 is an added benefit.

The economics of biodiesel are tightly wrapped up in political considerations.  The Federal government will pay the blender one dollar for every gallon of biodiesel he blends into the petroleum/bio mix. Only the blender gets the dough, which is why he can then pass on that savings down the chain.  The trucker will not see a penny of that, so I won’t get into that particular rats nest except to point out that if you removed the subsidies from any form of transportation energy source, we would all be walking at this point.

Suffice it to say that biodiesel will closely follow the price of petroleum diesel and might even be more expensive at times because most biodiesel is sold as a blend of anything from 2% bio, 98% petroleum all the way to 100% bio in special applications. But the core of the biodiesel business is in the 2 to 20% range.  A quick note on nomenclature, B20 is a 20% mix of biodiesel, B5 is 5% etc.  The reason for these blending amounts is based on the supply and demand of feedstocks such as soy oil, chicken fat or other natural fats.  One acre of soy beans will produce 48 Gallons of oil. Simple math indicates that to replace the 34 billion gallons of diesel sold in America last year you would need 700 million acres of soy beans.

Engine Makers?

With all that in mind, how can we explain the attitude of the engine manufacturers towards biodiesel?  It is based partly on bitter experience with bad batches in the early part of the century, it is based on anecdotal reports of engine filters and injectors clogging up and it is based on the simple fact that not all biodiesel is created equal.

In the beginning there was very little control over biodiesel production, individuals and corporations would produce batches of biodiesel in highly individualized production facilities.  There is now a national biodiesel standard just as there is a national diesel fuel standard. As long as the biodiesel conforms to ASTM D6751 and is produced from a reliable facility with ongoing testing services, there should be no problem as far as gelling and clouding. 

There is another drawback to biodiesel due to the fact that it is a good solvent.  In older engines, the first couple of tank fill ups can lead to injector and fuel clogging simply because it is cleaning the fuel circuit, from the tank to exhaust pipe.  The accumulated dirt has to be picked up and delivered to the engine itself.   Mechanics familiar with biodiesel routinely recommend that the filters be changed in the first few weeks to ensure smooth operation.

Soon the car manufacturers will be importing diesel powered examples of their existing models.  The diesel Mini has been available in Germany for the last four years; it gets 600 miles per tank of fuel.  In Europe diesel power competes very nicely and is hardly noticed at the rack. As a matter of fact, 60% of the cars in France run on diesel fuel, and all that diesel has biodiesel in it, that’s the law and those are my lungs!  Here, a small operation in Berkeley still feels the need to “educate” the people who buy their fuel, and biodiesel still has that trendy, tree-hugging aura the industry is trying to shed.

Ecology is not a trucking industry byword.  But engine efficiency is, and running B5 (5% biodiesel) is a great way to keep those pistons pumping because the lubricity of the bio is legendary.  It dramatically cuts down on the friction within the engine. Your truck will last a lot longer and smell a lot better.