Posted by Don in Missouri [172.68.38.43] on Wednesday, February 22, 2017 at 16:10:47 :
In Reply to: Re: Mid West diesel - Supports Monsanto posted by Keith in Washington [108.162.246.92] on Wednesday, February 22, 2017 at 14:37:06 :
I've been running B20 or greater in all my diesels since 2003. My first Cummins now has 435,000 miles on it and has been the most reliable vehicle I've ever owned. I believe in it so much, I quit my job in 2007 and went to work for the National Biodiesel Board. They are the people that lobby the federal government. I do research. I'm not a lobbyist. We don't lobby state governments. When states want to promote biodiesel on their own, we will share our research to help them do it correctly. For instance, we ask them to ensure fuel quality by setting and enforcing fuel quality specifications that ensure good performance.
There is no state that has a B20 requirement, yet. MN is currently the most aggressive at B10 in the summer and B5 in the winter. Their law is supposed to ramp up to B20 in 2018.
Oregon requires B5. Washington state has a law that requires 2% biodiesel, but the state Dept. of Agriculture has never implemented or enforced that law. So, the only reason you would be getting biodiesel in WA is because it is cheaper for the distributor to sell you that.
I'm sorry you think you get worse performance with biodiesel. How do you know that is the cause? Or did you just mean that towing is what causes your truck to get worse mileage. If the fuel contains more than 5% biodiesel, the pump must be labeled by federal law. So you should know for sure if you are getting B20 or not.
A gallon of biodiesel does have slightly less potential energy than a gallon of diesel fuel. However, we have just as many anecdotes of improved fuel economy as mileage decline. Our best scientific studies who no statistical difference in fuel economy between B20 and ULSD. All the other factors, including personal driving habits have a bigger impact on fuel economy.
The reason this is so is because biodiesel burns cleaner. What little additional potential energy that exists in a gallon of diesel fuel goes out your tailpipe (or trapped in your dpf) in the form of unburnt hydrocarbons as pollution. The more efficient burn of biodiesel balances the original reduced energy content.
I would be interested to learn more about your individual experiences. We are always trying to improve the experience for biodiesel users.
Keith, I've followed your posts on this forum for more than 15 years. Your beautiful Carryall was an inspiration to me long before I ever owned one myself. You have inspired me, yet again. I've wanted to put a Cummins in my Carryall almost since the day I got it, but never wanted to destroy its originality. Now it's clear to me that paving the way for my children to use cleaner renewable fuels is more important than living the past. Granted, raising my kids will take priority and I may never have time for this grand project, but it's now official that I am putting a diesel in my Power Wagon so I can run B100 in everything.
If anybody has any questions about biodiesel or renewable energy in general, I'm always glad to share what I know. For instance, Only about 14% of the biodiesel used nationwide is made from corn oil, and that is a specific grade of inedible corn oil that comes from the waste of ethanol production. Ethanol is fermented from corn starch. The remaining oil, protein, and fiber in the corn kernel is used for animal feed. The oil content is generally too high for cattle, so they remove some oil to make the feed rations more balanced. We use this excess oil for biodiesel. One of the two biodiesel producers in Washington state uses some of thoat distillers corn oil. They also use Canola oil grown in WA and in Canada. The other producer in WA uses waste cooking oil, as does the producer in Oregon.
Our organization is really about helping local businesses, like those producers on the West Coast. Add those all together and biodiesel supported 64,000 US jobs in 2016. Biodiesel added $11 billion to the domestic economy instead of sending that money to Saudi Arabia or Venezuela, etc..
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