Retail Petroleum Equipment

BioDiesel Technical Bulletin Q&A Subject: BioDiesel Fuel and Fuel Filtration Systems Date: December, 2005 1 BIODIESEL – QUESTIONS & ANSWERS What is BioDiesel? A renewable fuel for diesel engines that contains modified animal fats and/or vegetable oils such as soybean and rape seed (primarily in Europe). Chemical description: fuel containing mono-alkyl esters of long chain fatty acid. How is it manufactured? In the presence of a catalyst, Bio-Oils are reacted with alcohol such as methanol to form the neat product known as B100. Glycerin is a sugar type by-product of this process that must only exist in a very small percentage in the resulting B100. How biodiesel blend ratios are noted BioDiesel Blends are mixtures of neat (straight) BioDiesel (B100) and petroleum (Dino) diesel fuels. Ratios of biodiesel and petroleum fuels are indicated by the capital letter “B” followed by the percentage of biodiesel in the mix. Therefore, B20 is 20% BioDiesel and 80% petroleum Diesel. Are PetroClear filters compatible with BioDiesel? Yes, the elastomers, adhesives, metals, filtration media and media resin systems in our products are suitable for BioDiesel. Extensive laboratory and field testing has shown our PetroClear and Luberfiner filters to be compatible in BioDiesel Blends ranging from B2 to B20, and neat B100 from methyl soyate. Is the solvency issue only a problem at or above B35? No. You will read on pro BioDiesel websites that B20 is a drop-in to existing systems and the problems begin around B30-35. We have fleets running B11 and are suffering through gross contamination being released and plugging dispensing and vehicle filters. Some fleets are doing fine with B20 after a short run of plugging. We have analyzed competitive filters from the same units. When the fuel system is in this kind of unbalanced condition there is next to no difference in filter life regardless of the brand or media. It is important to remember the filters are doing their job by stopping the contaminant before it clogs the fuel injection system, or causes wear. What other options or recommendations for rapid plugging? If you have open access to your dispensing pumps, such as an above ground tank, we recommend you add another filter in series to the system. Use a PetroClear 30 micron particulate filter as the primary followed by a 10 micron filter for the secondary. The 30 micron filter will keep some of the contaminant off of the 10 micron filter and may allow you to extend the service life of the secondary. The 10 micron filter is a good idea on the dispenser to take some of the load off of the vehicle fuel filters. Plugged dispensing filters are easier to deal with than plugged vehicle filters since they usually occur out on the job. It is possible that you simply won’t be able to clean up certain tank loads in an efficient cost effective manner. In those cases it is best to have the fuel supplier become involved in the solution.