Heavy Duty Trucking, September 2018

for diesel technology to help meet tightening standards for greenhouse gas emissions Most new and existing diesel powered equipment is compatible with diesel blended with biodiesel or renewable diesel 5 to 20 bio renewable depending on manufacturer warranties Compliance with production quality standards and ASTM fuel standards will be critical to greater acceptance and successful use of these fuels in diesel engines DTF points out The confusing cousins known as biodiesel and renewable diesel are specific designations for the clean renewables noted by DTF But to be clear while bio and renewable when applied to diesel fuel designate them as clean options they are not interchangeable descriptors Of the two broad terms biodiesel has gotten more attention in the media in recent years than has renewable diesel Yet by its very name one might assume that renewable diesel is the greenest of them all However the two fuels are produced differently and have distinct properties that affect emission levels and combustion efficiency as well as some performance factors Biodiesel basics So lets take them one at a time A key differentiator of biodiesel is that it is typically served up as a blend To be sure it is a renewable fuel in that it is formulated from vegetable oils animal fats and recycled restaurant grease Biodiesels physical properties are similar to those of petroleum diesel but it burns cleaner Biodiesel meets both the biomassbased diesel and the overall advanced biofuel requirement of the federal Renewable Fuel Standard which requires that transportation fuel sold in the U S must contain a minimum volume of renewable fuels In its pure unblended form biodiesel is often referred to as B100 or neat as in straight up biodiesel Currently a 20 hakespeares Juliet asked Whats in a name She was talking about Romeo but she may well have been riffing on the different types of green diesel being marketed these days Lets start with clean diesel What does that term even mean Not so long ago if a fleet manager spoke of diesel being clean he meant it had been tested and proven to be free of water and other contaminants that could hurt engine performance But today clean equates with green and for diesel that designation is just the starting point for making sense of the marketing terms in play Clean diesel fuel containing 97 less sulfur is now the standard for both on highway and off highway diesel engines nationwide explains the advocacy group Diesel Technology Forum This happened because of the federal emissions regulations that came into play in the 2000s DTF says using this ultra low sulfur diesel ULSD in concert with advanced technologies such as electronic controls common rail fuel injection variable injection timing improved combustion chamber configuration and turbocharging has made diesel engines cleaner quieter and more powerful than in past vehicles Whats more according to DTF the ability of diesel engines to run on a range of renewable fuels and blends enhances the potential HDT SEPTEMBER 2018 64 WWW TRUCKINGINFO COM S PHOTO RENEWABLE ENERGY GROUP A L T E R N A T I V E F U E L S Clean fuels by one or another name are not quite the same By David Cullen Executive Editor dcullen@ truckinginfo com DIFFERENT WAYS TO COLOR DIESEL GREEN Biodiesels physical properties are similar to those of petroleum diesel but it burns cleaner Biodiesel meets both the biomass based diesel and the overall advanced biofuel requirement of the federal Renewable Fuel Standard GREENING DIESEL