Because of public enthusiasm about biofuels, misconceptions about the issues involved with their use propagate like mad. Here we talk about the downsides to the use of Biodiesel and SVO and how to avoid them.
Fuel Filters
Because biodiesel is an excellent solvent, it will pick up all the gunk that years of petroleum have left in your fuel lines and deposit them in your fuel filter. This is a transitional issue, which means it will only happen once when you make the switch from petroleum to biodiesel.
When you notice decreased performance from your car like decreased acceleration or hard starts (it could be in 2 weeks or 2 years), it could be that your fuel filter is getting clogged. This will not result in any permanent damage to your engine. You just need to change your fuel filter. It's pretty easy to do yourself, but if you don't want to, it is a very quick and easy job for a mechanic.
Cold Weather
Biodiesel and SVO become more viscous as temperatures go down, which impedes the fuel's ability to pass through your car's injector properly. Petroleum diesel has the same issues, but at much lower temperatures. Starting at around 32 degrees F (depending on the feedstock used to make the fuel) biodiesel will start to cloud and will have a harder time passing through the injector properly until the engine is warmed up. With SVO the cloud point can be as high as 40 degrees F. Symptoms can include hard starts, bad engine performance and possibly no starting at all.
There are a number of ways to deal with this issue. You might try heating the glow plugs 3 or 4 times before starting the car to get that first squirt of fuel nice and hot. If your engine has a block heater, use it– keep that thing plugged in when you're not driving it. One way to avoid the issue altogether is to add some petroleum diesel or kerosene into your tank before you go on that weekend to Big Bear. Using 50% biofuel/petro diesel will you keep you moving in the cold.
Rubber Lines and Gaskets
This generally applies only to cars older than 1994. If you have an older car (pre-1994), it has rubber components like fuel lines, seals, and gaskets. Biodiesel acts as a solvent on rubber and softens and degrades it over time. Again, this is not something to panic about. Have your local mechanic point out the fuel lines on your engine to you. Every now and then take a look at them. If you see what look like beads of sweat on the lines, it's time to replace them with lines made of Viton- a synthetic rubber that will not deteriorate from biodiesel use. You can also pre-empt any issues by changing over to Viton right away. Again, a cheap and easy fix for your mechanic. Marine hose type A1 is a high-quality Viton hose you can find at marine supply stores.
Bad Fuel
Basically it boils down to this: Good biodiesel is good for a diesel engine. It decreases wear and tear because of its added lubricity over ULSD. Bad biodiesel is bad for your engine. The ASTM 6751 standard for biodiesel specifies what the fuel is and sets standards for quality. Look for this logo when purchasing biodiesel at the pump:
and you can be sure that you are pumping ASTM spec fuel. Bad, i.e. out of spec, fuel can cause major problems anywhere in your fuel system, and can also be bad for emissions. These are some of the things that can be found in bad fuel:
Glycerine, either by itself or in mono and diglycerides from an incomplete reaction. Glycerine can gum up an injector pump or fuel shutoff solenoid, can cause irregular atomization of the fuel as it goes through the injector which will cause an incomplete burn. It can also cause coking on your injector, which will lead to more problems down the line.
Leftover methanol will degrade aluminum parts in your fuel system.
Soaps can cause wear on metal parts, including inside the engine.
Leftover Catalyst will raise the pH of your fuel and will cause wear everywhere in the fuel system.
Biodiesel's reputation suffers as well, as mechanics, who see these problems and have to fix them, spread the word about what they see happening to cars.
Tunnel Vision- Unsustainable Use of SVO and Biodiesel
It's hard not to feel like everything's OK now- now that you're driving down the road petroleum free and all. It's important to take action- and by using biodiesel or SVO we are. But no source of energy is perfect, including SVO and biodiesel. Sustainability issues apply to these fuels, just as they would any energy source:
• it takes energy to make biodiesel and VO
• it takes a lot of energy to manufacture cars
• it takes a lot of energy to bring soy biodiesel from the Midwest to California
• corn and soy are monoculture crops and are notoriously bad for the environment
• GMO crops for biofuels is already happening
• although greatly reduced, there are still emissions coming from our tailpipes
• dipping into the food supply to run our cars isn't sustainable. The soy oil that biodiesel is made from isn't diverted from food-grade oil YET.
There is a movement, especially strong in California, to keep biofuels in the future the way we all envision it to be. The Biodiesel Council of California is one group who have sustainability at the forefront of their activities. The The L.A. Biodiesel Coop, by preferring to buy locally produced biodiesel from locally grown non-GMO crops is another.
And riding your bike is still better than driving your car.
