The recent cold snap has thrown into focus the varying quality standards of biodiesel and the issues of running fleets on high levels of the eco fuel, which could freeze.
The use of biodiesel is growing as fleets look for greener alternatives to traditional fuels.
But not all is going as expected: for example, a bus company in Norfolk had to apologise to customers for ‘unprecedented disruption’ to its services after the biodiesel in all of it 11 buses froze, rendering the vehicles unusable.
So they have had to revert back to using low-sulphur diesel until the problem had been rectified.
The case illustrates the varying standards of biodiesel, and the differing behaviour of the recycled materials in them in cold weather conditions. Generally, biodiesel has a slightly higher freezing point than standard diesel. But, according to the quality of the biodiesel, that freezing point changes.
Biodiesel made from vegetable oil behaves very similarly to standard diesel, freezing at around -12 degrees. However, those blends made from ‘tropical oils’ such as palm oil, or fuel made from animal fat struggle in the northern European climate, with a freezing point much nearer to zero degrees.
Oh dear this is not good news in trying to help our doomed environment. This also highlights the fact that has enough concrete research gone into the production of bio fuels or are they really more damaging to our planet?
FemaleFirst - Jackie Violet