Your Questions About Biodiesel Cars

admin answers:

1. Not much cost required for car to run on Biodiesel, a extra filter in fuel line is about all required on pre -1995 Mercedes and VW, Dodge pickups with the Cummings 6.
2. Normal full service garage familiar with diesel should have no problems.
3. Not all- has to be a basic diesel engined car to start.
4. Not many complications if Bio-diesel is made right- extra filters and cold starting drills needing preheaters in some colder climates.
5. Used fry oil is available – but existing markets mean you pay going rate for the used frying oil. Still cheaper than drilling new well in Alaska.
6. Filters may need changing more often.
Final note: it isn’t car changing cost- it’s the making of the Bio-diesel fuel process that adds to cost of fuel first. Soybean and cottonseed oil used in frying need a bit of processing to be best for fuel use. Lard and tallow need some processing also. After processing the fuel can be used in a 1980s Mercedes with minimal changes- extra filter recommended.

admin answers:

Most major manufacturers have their diesels rated to run on b10. Which means it can run on a blend of 10% diodiesel and 90% petroleum diesel. But they will still run on b100 which is 100% based biodiesel it will just void your warranty if they catch it.

admin answers:

Any of the cars there will run on it just fine.

However what do you mean by biodiesel?

If you mean stuff from an actual petrol station then yes.

If you mean cooking oil then you can you it, but not just in its pure form.
A 15% mix of cooking oil and normal diesel will probably be fine, apart from in a cold winter where it might get to thick.
Really cooking oil needs to be mixed properly with ethanol and used with a tank heater in the car to get its viscosity down to the same level as regular diesel.

Also as a side note, Any german car produced after a certain date (dont know what date but at least in the past 10 years) has a legal requirement to run on biodiesel or in petrol engines bio-ethanol.
Some companys call these engines ‘flexifuel’

admin answers:

It’s not necessarily half the price. If you get biodiesel at a gas station that carries it, the biodiesel costs about the same as petroleum gas/diesel. However, there are other cheaper options like getting waste vegetable oil (potentially for free from restaurants) and using it as fuel.

Http://greenhome.huddler.com/wiki/eco-friendly-cars-for-the-cheapskate

Biodiesel is approximately as energy efficient as petroleum diesel in that you get roughly the same miles per gallon.

Basically the catch is that you have to have a diesel car, you have to find a source of biodiesel, and if you’re going to use waste vegetable oil, you need to make a conversion to your car (see link above).