US researchers have found that many local biodiesel blends do not contain the advertised amount of biofuel.
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Chemist Christopher Reddy of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and his colleagues found that the actual biodiesel content of B20 fuels (supposed to contain 20% biodiesel), was between 10 and 74% biofuel. Only 10% of samples from more than a dozen distributors across the US met the biofuel blend requirements of the US Department of Defence, one of the largest consumers of biofuel.
The research was published online in the journal Environmental Science and Technology.
“It’s mostly the smaller mom-and-pop retailers that are mixing it themselves” that have problems, said Reddy.
These operations often use a simple method called splash blending, in which biodiesel is poured into regular diesel in a tank or truck. But biodiesel is thicker and more viscous than petroleum-based diesel, so it can settle into layers.
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