5 Things you must know before adding Biodiesel into your Diesel Engine

Many researchers have claimed biodiesel to be the fuel of the future. Although biodiesel offers many advantages such as enhanced engine performance in addition to having environment friendly emissions, there are a few things that you must know before using biodiesel in your car. Not knowing these factors may lead to unpleasant surprises. Let’s look at 5 Factors you must know before adding Biodiesel into your Diesel Engine:

 

    1. Biodiesel is not universally compatible with every automobile ever built. Hence it is absolutely important for you to check your owner’s engine manual to find out the types of fuels you can use in your engine. Also, biodiesel is not compatible with all engine components. Some manufacturers such as Volkswagen and ford have taken a step in this direction and are in the process of creating a diesel car or diesel engine which is more compatible with blended biodiesel fuels.
    2. Usually more problems arise when you try to use biodiesel fuel in the diesel engine of old cars. Even blended biodiesel fuels, which have more manageable effects within permitted limits, have known to give more problems when used in old diesel engines. These biodiesels degrade and soften certain types of natural rubber compounds and elastomers, which are usually used in your diesel engines. Neat or undiluted biodiesels have known to destroy hose, certain types of gaskets and seal compounds like Buna-N and Nitrile. Failure of these systems can cause problems related to fuel leakage.
    3. Since natural or Butyl rubbers degrade considerably when in contact with pure biodiesels, several manufacturers have offered a nice workaround. You can replace your fuel cap and hoses with a material that is more compatible with Biodiesels. Another option is to use a Biodiesel blend with petrol or diesel, since it causes less stress and wear on your hoses and sealants.
    4. One important rule of thumb to always remember while dealing with Biodiesels is to never ever pour pure Biodiesel [B100] into your diesel engine whether it’s new or old. Never try to perform this unnecessary stunt since experimentation with Biodiesels can prove to be expensive. Rather, you should always use a blend, more notably B20 (twenty percent biodiesel and eighty percent fuel) since it causes less stress for diesel engines. Also, as the proportion of Biodiesel reduces, less stress is experienced by the engine body and various engine components. As mentioned above, you must consult your dealer or at the very least, read your owner’s manual before doing anything related to biodiesels.
    5. Cold weather can freeze biodiesel and turn it into a gel. Hence, cold temperature is the greatest single factor that can affect the performance of biodiesel in your car engine. Neat or hundred percent biodiesel freezes even quickly than blended biodiesels. This is another reason why you should never use pure biodiesel as a fuel. In case you are using B20, you will only notice problems when the temperature reaches between 2 to 10° Fahrenheit. Gelling of biodiesel commonly occurs below this temperature. In order to overcome this problem of biodiesel gelling, you can store your vehicle in a heated garage so that the biodiesel remains in a mixed state with the diesel. This will prevent gelling since it only occurs when biodiesel gets isolated. In addition, you can also add some cold flow addition additives such as kerosene which will further help in preventing gelling of the biodiesel fuel.

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