RE: [A/S] Re: Diesel Fuel from Vegetables - Bio diesel fuel

["Oliver Filippi" <ofilippi@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

When Rudolf Diesel invented his engine, he anticipated it being run on
vegetable oil!

Bio diesel is available in many parts of the country, and is a viable
alternative to petroleum diesel fuel.  Bio is made from vegetable oil - both
fresh and recycled (like used oil from MacDonald's' french fryer.

Bio is NOT plain vegetable oil, but a processed one, where the vegetable oil
is the primary feed stock.

The reason that bio diesel fuel is typically sold as a blend with petro
diesel is that straight bio fuel tends to clean the fuel system of a diesel
engine and can also attack the rubber gaskets and hoses of most diesel
engines.  Blended with some dino fuel gets around this problem. In the
meantime, diesel engine manufacturers are changing the seals, etc. to
materials which are compatible with 100% bio fuel.

The bio fuel typically has fewer BTUs (heat units) per gallon, so fuel
mileage ought to be slightly lower.  However, in practice, the fuel economy
tends to be about the same since the improved cleaning action causes the
engine to operate slightly more efficiently.

At this writing, the price of bio is very close to that of dino, often
slightly higher than dino.

To those who are concerned about oil company pricing shenanigans, if bio
becomes cheaper, then so will dino fuel when faced with a sustainable, lower
priced competitor.

Willie Nelson, the folk singer (and Farm Aid underwriter) is underwriting
the promotion of bio-diesel.  Check out the Bio Willie web site.

I have tried some bio fuel in my VW Jetta TDI, and it runs fine.
Unfortunately, in my area, the location of a bio fuel dealer is some
distance away.  The local bio distributor is having trouble lining up gas
stations to carry the bio fuel, since only independents with an extra tank
are viable potential retailers.  Any filling station owned by, or otherwise
connected to, a major oil company can't touch it.