Who's running B100 in cold weather?
 

I have been thinking about this...I am going to have a winter 240D, and a steady supply of B100. Id like to run B100 or close to it through the winter.

Im in Boston, so it gets down into the 20's during the day, 0 at night on the coldest days of the year.

Does anyone have a two tank conversion meant to modestly heat for B100 (as opposed to the 180 deg F heating needed for WVO)?

Heated fuel pickups or filters?

Or just blend with petro, kero etc?

Thanks,
dd

that is cold, but you should be OK if you put a magnetic heater on your tank, and plug in the block heater.
aside from that, you could order one of those gas fired fuel heaters (kinda odd to have a gas tank on a diesel car but still...)

In the winter its a good idea to blend 50/50 ULSD and B100, plus throw in some biodiesel compatible anti-gel stuff. It's like $10 per bottle, and goes a long way. I don't remember what brand I got, maybe Lucas?, but look for special mention of biodiesel compatibility on the bottle.

Most stations quit selling B100 in the winter months and switch to some kind of mix.

To run B100 in the winter time you will need to atleast heat the tank and the fuel filter. A block heater would be a good idea as well, granted this won't heat the fuel but it will keep the bloxk warm which will help on those cold mornings. And ideally you'll want to heat the fuel lines as well. Becuase the biodiesel in them can freeze up and not allow fuel to get through. The block heater and tank heater are going to be 120v so you will have to have access to a plug in all the time. You can wire in a heater band for your fuel filter pretty easily. Grease Works sell a heater band that would work. They also sell B100 winterization kits which included a heater band for the filter and a tank heater. The one big draw back to running B100 in the winter is if you don't have access to the plug-ins you need you may freeze the biodiesel, and you'll have to wait for the temp to warm up or heat it another way.

The easiest and most reliable way is to blend in the winter time

Luckily, I have a very direct link to the refinery that produces the B100 :D

My whole motivation is since the B100 I make is $.80 a gallon (+ fed road tax), I want to keep as much of it in my tank as possible.

Bio300TD - thanks for the comments. It does sound like blending is the best way to go. Are you blending only petrodiesel or do you throw kerosene into the mix? Theres got to be a chart somewhere that explains the cloud/pour point of soy bio with different ratios of petro.

I have yet to do any experiments to figure out where the cloud/pour point is on my bio. Its made from waste soy oil.

dd

In the past I have kept a 50-50 blend of B100 and winter diesel in my tank in the winter. But it rarely drops below freezing here much. When is starts staying near freezing I go down to a B20 blend. The only times I've had problems is when I have B100 or B99 in my tank and it's down near freezing. The BD companies tell you to start blending when it starts dropping below about 40*F. The cloud point of soy BD is close to freezing(any supplier, legally has to give you that info if you as for it, and I have asked for it in the past and I usually get the info with no fuss). So blending when temps are below 40*F is usually a good idea.

I'm not aware of any charts that show cloud points of blended and non blended biodiesel. There are lot of home photo experiements with different blends being put in the frig or freezer.

Something I have done with my BD and VO is put a bunch of whatever you are running in your car into a container and put it outside in the winter time. Keep and eye on it. Whatever it is doing is what is in your tank and fuel system. This will give you visual of whats going on in your car's fuel system.

I did some cold weather tests of my homebrew BD based on overnight unheated drive shed sample observations last year and came up with the following temp guide:
B100 down to 45-50*F I want to take no chances especially with BD made from solid at room temp grease
B50 from to 45 - 35* F
B33 below 35*F and that got me down into single digits below zero
I mix in it the fuel tank with ULSD and a measured shot of PS Grey or White depending on what I have on hand.
Absolutely no gel issues

I ran a single-tank WVO system here in the Reno winter (not AS cold, but still in the teens at night and the 20's-30's during the day).

Just mix in 10% D2, and you'll be fine.

thanks for the replies.

thats amazing that B33 made with solid at room temp yellow grease was ok into the single digits. that must mean my B50 made from soy oil will be ok down there.

does anyone blend kerosene? i know thats even recommended in the MB manual for cold weather.

dd

Kerosene is actually my blender of choice. D2 is more convenient, but kerosene thins the oil better.

Yes the higher quality liquid oils will yield better low temp characteristics