It actually has a slightly lower heat content than diesel, so you get a little less out of a gallon (I believe).

That station in San Diego sells B20, which is only 20% biodiesel. Bummer...

You will see many more diesel powered cars, but it will be ten or so years. Wait til gas is $6.00 a gallon, lots of things (including not using them) become viable alternatives suddenly.

T. Boone Pickens (I think, may be someone else!) has publicly stated that he expects world oil production to peak about Thanksgiving Day 2005 and drop of pretty fast after that.

BioDiesel works just fine, with the exception of a fairly high pour point. This can be corrected with some work, right now it's usually just plain vegetable oil derived methyl esters, nothing else. Same process works just fine with animal fat, too, so expect the market for waste edible oil to take off when diesel hits about $2.50 a gallon (early next year?).

Biofuels are the future if we want to drive cars and ship by truck, otherwise I'd suggest moving to where you can walk to work -- personal automobiles may last 15 more years, but it's not gonna be much more than that.

Peter

__________________
1972 220D ?? miles
1988 300E 200,012
1987 300D Turbo killed 9/25/07, 275,000 miles
1985 Volvo 740 GLE Turobodiesel 218,000
1972 280 SE 4.5 165, 000 - It runs!

Hey all

If you are interested in B100 or B20 ( 100% biodiesel or 20% biodiesel) go to journeytoforever.org. This site has more info then you could read in a week. BioD burns cleaner cooler and quieter. It is easy to make at home for less then a $1 per gallon

Gary T
'00 Dodge 24v Cummins
'02 Honda CR-V for sale lo miles
'83 300d sold for a buck to Neighbor's 16 yr old

Ps I am looking for a '93 E300 2.5 (or newerTD) in immaculate shape, for cheap and near N.W. Montana. Anybody want to drive their MB to see Glacier national park?? I think I have asked for too much but you never know what you will get when you ask for the world.

Car and Driver actually did mention bio diesel in an article about eight months ago or so about the availability of diesels. They looked at an MB, a Jetta TDI and something else. They also mentioned old MB 300D's and kind of took a crack at them, and only brought up bio-diesel to make fun of it.

C&D is an alright car magazine for what it is, but they tend to limit their automotive enthusiasm to pretty much one kind, contemporary and cool, and an occasional Hyundai/Kia or Camry test. Bio-diesel isn't going to register on their radar I don't think.

Most of the media blurbs I read, hear or see make automotive technologies seem mutually exclusive. I attribute this to the business factions pushing the different technologies. For instance have you heard anything about a diesel powered hybrid? The media seems to want us to believe you can either have hybrids or diesels but not a diesel hybrid. "Our way is the only way", not.