A Boost for B100

by Susanne Retka Schill (Biodiesel Magazine) The quest for carbon reduction is driving interest in higher biodiesel blends, and Optimus Technologies’ Vector System is enabling diesel engines to transition. -- ... “What we’re seeing now is that customers want to have maximum carbon reductions, and B20 simply is not enough,” says (Steve) Howell, founding partner of M4 Consulting, senior technical advisor to Clean Fuels Alliance America and chair of the ASTM biodiesel task force. “Forward thinking, carbon-conscious customers with fleets—the Amazons, Walmarts and Pepsis—have corporate goals to reduce carbon over time, with some going all the way to net zero. There are a lot of public policy goals targeting 40% carbon reduction in 2030 and 80% carbon reduction in 2050.”

If fleets began using B100, they could attain that 80% reduction tomorrow, Howell says. With biodiesel considered a biogenic fuel, B100 under the U.S. EPA’s Scope 1 greenhouse gas (GHG) protocols provides a 100% carbon reduction. Under other GHG accounting systems such as Argonne National Laboratory’s GREET life-cycle model, B100 generally provides a 65-85% reduction.

While carbon reduction goals are driving interest, a new technology is solving biodiesel’s biggest problem—cold flow. The fleet trial not only demonstrated the technology works well in all weather conditions, but also dispels other concerns about biodiesel operation in modern diesel engines. The 16-month biodiesel field trial covered nearly 1.3 million miles of on-road operation with 10 Class 8 Mack trucks in Archer Daniels Midland’s trucking fleet. Five were upgraded with Optimus Technologies, Vector System and fueled with B100 to be compared against a control group of five unmodified trucks operating on B11. All 10 trucks operated on similar routes, consuming similar amounts of fuel and were equipped with New Technology Diesel Engines (NTDEs) that employ diesel oxidation catalyst (DOC), diesel particulate filter (DPF) and selective catalytic reduction (SCR) after-treatment technologies.

Optimus’ Vector System upgrades diesel to operate on B100 while never inhibiting the engine’s operation on traditional diesel, explains Optimus CEO Colin Huwyler. The system involves a series of heat exchangers, pumps, filters and sensors that are the core mechanical components controlled electronically and interacting with the engine’s fuel system controller and after-treatment electronics. “Everything is happening autonomously,” Huwyler says, “so the drivers don’t have any interaction. Our software monitors fuel and engine parameters and as soon as the operating conditions are met, it will switch from diesel, which the engine starts up on, over to biodiesel.”

“We saw a pretty dramatic benefit utilizing 100% biodiesel with our technology in engines with diesel particulate filters,” Huwyler says. DPF filters essentially collect the soot from combustion, and since biodiesel generates roughly 50% less soot than traditional diesel, that correlated to about 50% improvement in the regeneration cycle of the filters in the ADM trucks running on B100, extending the 110-hour interval to 220 hours. “Any time you can extend those intervals, there is a direct cost savings to the operational aspect of running a fleet,” he says. In addition to the DPF regen benefit, the 1.3 million-mile-trial found no issues with crankcase oil dilution and a slight improvement in fuel economy running on B100.

The positive B100 findings will improve biodiesel’s competitiveness with renewable diesel, Howell continues. “A lot of the reason companies were looking at renewable diesel was because the OEMs were concerned about the metals in biodiesel, and they didn’t think you could use more than B20. Renewable diesel is distilled, which removes metals, so most OEMs support use of 100% renewable diesel. Now we’re finding out you can use 100% biodiesel too, because our quality has improved so much.”

Biodiesel vs Renewable Diesel
Biodiesel is going to be competitive with renewable diesel, even as RD capacity is scaling rapidly, because it’s less expensive and available, Huwyler says.

"... When an electric bus costs three, four, five times as much as a regular diesel bus, a $30,000 retrofit on a $300,000 vehicle is not very much of a cost.”

“Because of how biodiesel is used today, it gets blended with traditional diesel,” Huwyler says. “So, travel centers where trucks fuel often have 100% biodiesel that gets blended on site as B5 or B20. Because of that, B100 already exists at truck stops, and to scale up the ability to dispense is really about putting another pump in at the truck stop.” READ MORE