Biodiesel In Our Future

[iwasthere]

we will elect you to be grammer czar for the masses.

[Rick Rowlands]

Yes, after reading that sentence(?), I agree that education and especially grammar instruction should be of paramount importance in the US.

[iwasthere]

we must find many alternative ways for energy sources for this country then the fighting on local, state and federal concerning fossil fuels ceases that our focus canbe on imp items such as employment, education and universal healthcare.

[Rick Rowlands]

Biodiesel requires heaters to keep the fuel from gelling up in colder temps.  Otherwise it should work fine in older diesel engines.  Who knows when it comes to the newer ones, as some of the complications that are now added to vehicles may not like to work with biodiesel.

[northside lurker]

I don't know much about what differences are required between running biodiesel and regular diesel, but if Why?Town is correct, then running biodiesel just becomes an option that wasn't available before.  I don't find it too far-fetched to think there was a local group willing to make some biodiesel to sell to the WRTA.

As for natural gas, I was told by a driver many years ago, that the WRTA had natural gas buses, but they were difficult to work on, and were sold to Akron.

[Rick Rowlands]

Where is the biodiesel coming from?  What is the cost comparison with regular diesel?  Does WRTA have their own fueling facilities that now have to be duplicated to handle biodiesel?   Can WRTA right now afford to be doing this?   Why not buy new natural gas buses instead?

[Why?Town]

I wonder what that means exactly. My 2001 VW Beetle was compatible with biodiesel right off the showroom floor and I'm pretty sure all current model diesel cars are also.

Now my diesel Rabbit pick up truck would have needed all the rubber hoses and seals replaced but that truck was 30 years old.

I only ran two tankfulls though, first off it was hard to find, second it cost more than regular diesel, and lastly it reduced my fuel economy by about 10%.

[jay]

The new WRTA bus arriving this week is configured to run on biodiesel.