Bio Diesel in fuel oil furnace

Recently, there was a thread about putting fuel oil in a tractor. Got the reverse question in a way...

My garage in town has a old fuel oil furnace. Its gotten to be a problem to get this filled (big hassle...). I was looking to get rid of it this summer and put in a propane ceiling mounted heater but found out the local rules on where the tank goes were not favorable for my lot. It could not go next to the garage where the oil tank currently is. Locations of lot lines and other buildings (me or neighbors) mean it ends up a eyesore in the front yard.

So, scratch that.... Maybe go with off peak electric like the house uses but I didn't have time to work that this summer.

So, looking to run that oil furnace another winter.

I brought back 2 30gal oil drums from the farm along with a hand transfer pump. The plan was to just get some road diesel from the C store and put that in the furnace tank.

I see that the C store nearby sells biodiesel per their website. Reading about that seems could be a bad deal in this old furnace. Leaks or clogs up the filter....

Thoughts? Any farm related stations that probably have normal diesel are a good 10-15mile trip so I would need to do a much better job of securing those drums in the trailer. Not to mention more driving that I would want to....

Here in Maryland we have been mandated for the last 8 years or so
for all diesel fuel to be 5%blend. That being said the only thing
available here is 5%bio. I can’t say it’s completely problem free but
diesel is a nasty fuel anyway regardless. Just put some treatment in
with it or a couple cans of kerosene and it will be fine. Been
delivering fuel for 16 years and haven’t seen the old high sulfur stuff
in years here. What we use here is clear on road diesel that we dye
at the rack while loading the trucks

Google is my friend!

ANSWER: You can use it as a fuel for your oil heat burner or to run any diesel engine. ... Biodiesel can be blended with
petroleum heating oil and used at up to a 20% blend in any home heating system without making any modifications to the system.
A 3% blend of biodiesel with 97% home heating oil is called B3.

Since the tank is outside in the ND winter cold are you currently using #1 fuel (or a #1/#2 blend)?

Would the proposed biodiesel be #1 or #2 or a blend?

Unless using straight #1 or a blend with a high percentage of #1 my biggest worry would be biodiesel fuel being more prone to gelling in the bitter cold.

Do you keep the shop above freezing at all times/have things inside that would be damaged by freezing, or just heat it while you work there?

here's my story on bio diesel , I drove truck and trailer fuel truck for 5 years after I retried from Kenworth , The guy I drove
for owned 5 stations and 2 fuel trucks , unbeknownst to me the owner had just drop 1500 gals of b -100 in the ground tank . so when
I pulled in the first thing I did was fuel the truck up then pull forward and dump the load in the ground , I made it 25 miles
before the filters clogged up , I had to changed filters for the next 3 days as B-100 will clean out all and any varnish in your
system , now I know you are not using B-100 but I wonder if even B-3 could cause you trouble , just my 2 cents

some answers to questions:

- outdoor tank in ND. Last filled end of Dec last winter. It regular gets -20F here in mid winter. Fuel delivery knew that so used what would work.
- There is about 90-100 gal left in a 260 gal tank per my stick.
- I don't work in the garage a lot in the winter, but keep it above freezing in there otherwise, so set thermostat for 45d.
- C store sign says they change to winter blend bio on Nov 1.
- 60 gal from 2 drums would not last till spring so may take more trips.... Short take is the % blend would be a lot more than 20% if I try to fill the tank.

I generally go through a full tank in the course of a winter. Used to I filled in the fall but some years ago a coworker took out a oil system in his house and I got some left over fuel mid winter and topped off with that so the fill schedule got shifted a few months so now I do it between Christmas and new years when I am off work.

Jeff don't you have a service tank in Pickup, but i know a guy who owns truck stop's and owns two nice semi that pull tanker for his stores, he don't like Bio Diesel either,he's been in business for 40 year!!!

What blend of biodiesel? 2%, 5%, 10%, 20%?

Here in MN w run a blend year around, up to 20% in summer, I think it’s 2% in winter.

Works well, but you don’t want the 20% when it’s 5 degrees out......

The anti gel products help but gets expensive for just heating, and they don’t really make 20% bio flow well below zero.....

Wouldn’t bother me in the furnace, but with your oiltank I’d be concerned about anything over 5% bio in winter.

Don’t they have a winter blend? Folks have to use that, I would think the would sell a winter blend of low or no bio, and a bit of #1 to keep it flowing don to 30 below?

Paul

I'm south of you, here in Missouri, so things may be different in ND. I am a retired fuel hauler. I hauled primarily in Missouri, Kansas, Arkansas, and Oklahoma. Around these parts, most places stopped putting bio-diesel in the diesel fuel for the winter blend. They went back with it in the Spring. You might check and see if that is the case in ND. Possibly, it is not added in your winter blend.

Do you have a friend or neighbor with a semi ?

He fills his tanks brim full and comes down to your place.

You pump off whatever it takes to fill your tank.

You go for a ride with him and pay the bill to fill his tanks back up and buy him dinner.

Everybody happy, caught up on conversation and problem solved.

Will see how this goes, worst case I have to pump it back out...

If I had managed to get a new heating source this summer, the original, original plan, was to xfer the furnace oil out and take that to the farm for the '89 Belarus bush-hog tractor.

So, the new original plan was to pull up at the Casey's C store in town. Label on the pump said it was winter blend from Nov 1 to April. But, with my 18' car trailer behind my truck, I would be blocking anyone getting around the pumps and store. Seemed like a rude thing to do.

I knew of a rural Cenex un-manned station at a cross roads that is setup for farm trucks to get in/out. Not the worst drive. So, I drove there and filled my 2 30g drums and came back. Label on that pump was it was B5-B20. This was over the border in MN so price was 14c higher too....Things were going fairly well in the fuel transfer until I tried to pour out the last couple gallons out that the transfer pump would not get.

Turned out that drum #1 that was one my late Dad used with this same xfer pump for tractor fuel that he kept in the shed cause the farm barrel was hard to get at in the winter, had a bunch of crap on the bottom. I don't think much ended up in my furnace tank as I funneled the dregs from the drum to a empty 2gal oil jug and then to the tank with a screened funnel that kept clogging up. The #2 drum was a empty that had 15W-40 tractor oil in it at one time, tag dated Dec 1996. That one dumped out a lot cleaner at the end.

So, I got about 57 gal of this B5 to B20 mixed into about 90-100 gal of I am pretty sure #1 regular furnace oil.

I am sure all this sounds like amateur hour at the zoo, haha.

I decided to purchase an IH OTR cab that had a rebuilt Cummins Big Cam 400 engine and had 2 ea. 100 gallon fuel tanks, having sat idle for several years. Don't remember how much fuel was in the tanks over that period. I don't remember the exact sequence and all, but I bought a case of filters, finally got the thing running and put it in service. Going down the road, when power started dropping off, I'd pull over to the side of the road, put in a new filter and be on my way till it happened again.

Nice thing about the Cummins is that it self primed and I had no problems just swapping filters. I think I used half a case before things settled out and you could shine a flashlight down into the tank and see nothing but squeaky clean tanks and clear fuel. Don't remember any additives I may have used other than a quart of ATF per 100 gallons of #2.