Heat Your Home with Biodiesel

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Check burner pump seal. Although some folks have used 8100 with success to heat their homes, this strategy is not gen erally recommended because of biodiesel's tendency to degrade rubber seals. In some cases, burning a concentrated biodiesel blend causes fuel-pump seal failures. The leaky seal (or pump) usually can be repaired by a heating-service technician in a short time, but the potential for this problem should be kept in mind if you are considering using a high concentration of biodiesel. Some oil burner manufacturers are testing new seal materials to eliminate this problem in future burner models.

Terry Mason of North Wolcott, Vermont, however, has had no problems. He started heating his home with B100 about three years ago, making the biodiesel in his basement from recycled cooking oil collected from local restaurants. "I wanted to be self-sufficient in my home heating," he says. "I really didn't have any problems except for a little gunk in the fuel filter the first time I started using the biodiesel."

GREAT POTENTIAL

The potential for reducing our reliance on imported crude oil with the increased use of biodiesel as a heating fuel additive is substantial. Officials at the USDA Agricultural Research Center in Beltsville, Maryland, estimate that if everyone in the Northeast used a B5 blend in their oil furnaces, 50 million gallons of regular heating oil a year could be saved.

Biodiesel emission reductions compared to EPA-certified diesel fuel.

Compared to diesel fuel, biodiesel fuel reduces pollution significantly, cutting hydrocarbon and particulate emissions by more than half. Even using a blend of 20 percent biodiesel/80 percent fuel oil can curb emissions by up to 20 percent.

The Center has been heating its many buildings successfully with a biodiesel blend since 2000. They started by burning a B5 blend, but in 2001, encouraged by the test results, they switched to B20 without experiencing any problems.

"Using biodiesel offers an opportunity to reduce emissions, especially particulate matter and hydrocarbons, and that's a great advantage," says John Van de Vaarst, Agricultural Research Center deputy area director, who is responsible for facilities management and operations. " I used to refer to biodiesel as an alternative fuel, but now I call it an `American fuel, made by American farmers.' I think it's an obvious strategy to help clean up the environment and reduce our dependency on foreign oil."

Sponsored by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and the U.S. Department of Energy, Brookhaven National Laboratory on Long island conducted its own series of tests on the use of biodiesel for space heating.

That facility's 2001 test report found that biodiesel blends at or below B30 can replace fuel oil with no noticeable changes in performance. Burning of the blends also reduced carbon monoxide and nitrogen oxide emissions.

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