Public bus fleet announces reduction in biodiesel blend
The company that manages the company that manages the urban buses in the city of Vitoria-Gasteiz (Basque Country, Spain), Tuvisa, has announced a reduction on the percentage of biodiesel used in the fleet. The reason? An increase in engine problems registered by the fleet.
Tuvisa started to use B20 in 2005 among most of its fleet but the number of breakdowns and engine-related problems raised. Last year, Tuvisa reduced the biodiesel blend to 12 percent (B12), and even newer buses, bought in 2006, had the same problems (which are not specified by the source). Therefore, the company has decided that just 5 percent biodiesel will be used by the fleet (B5).
The problems were solved when the units ran on standard diesel and the problems affected both older and newer buses, the company said.
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[Source: Noticias de Álava via Econoticias]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
detroit9000 6:29PM (9/13/2007)
Sorry to say, the polymers just aren't there yet. But they'll never get there unless the biodiesel developers have resources to invest in R&D. As such, it's important to subsidize biodiesel sales so the developers can afford to compete and to invest in R&D.
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kballs 10:40PM (9/13/2007)
I think the problem is that biodiesel still doesn't have to meet standards of the same level as petrodiesel to be sold, so they could have had some bad batches with too much glycerin, etc. that clogged up the fuel systems.
For those that worry about gelling of biodiesel in cold weather, petrodiesel (diesel #2) has the same problem, they just compensate in cold climates by mixing it with kerosene (diesel #1)... you can do the same with biodiesel (and make it bio-fuel by using ethanol instead of kerosene).
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