Future diesel fuel (silicone diesel) may be produced from natural gas. Silicone diesel is a high quality and extremely clean burning fuel. Read Gale Banks tech talk on the subject at https://bankspower.com/tech_synthetic.cfm

You have to be careful when running biodiesel because some fuel system components may not be compatible; in some cases biodiesel can eat coatings off of the inside of fuel tanks plugging filters and injectors. To combat the problem of reduced lubrication with bio use a diesel fuel treatment. I run Amsoil Diesel Fuel Conditioner in my 95 Ford. This fuel conditioner also makes up for reduced lubrication from low sulfur diesel.

In the winter I will never go without adding Amsoil cetane boost. With cetane boost my truck starts much better, smokes less and gets better mileage.

If you keep biodiesel at B5 or lower, you are probably OK. Even 1% diesel gives the lubrication properties you are looking for.

I had ULSD eat up the seals on my '91 Jetta, after the reseal - it's been OK. Just paid $3.79 a gallon yesterday. I have to go buy more tomorrow for my tractor as it ran out in the woods. First time I ever ran it out.

Ya, Europe's passenger car fleet is nearly half diesel, so since the dollar fell in the gutter, guess who can afford to pay more for it. ;)

for Ryland: I'm afraid to look at B100 prices now. I almost drove by my local retailer of B100 to see the current price on the pump, but it would have added 10 miles to the trip, and I wasn't going to buy any that day anyway. The price will be higher when I do have to get some as my home reserve is depleted, so why check now?
I have been glancing at petrodiesel prices as I drive by those retailers, between $3.799 and $4.089 in my region this past weekend.

For SD76: Yes, BTU content per gallon is less than with petrodiesel, about 5% to 10% lower depending on who's calculating. I saw about 7% lower distance per gallon on the last car I ran long enough on petro before I advanced to bio back in 2001. Interestingly, the slower burn rate of bio produces MORE power at lower rpm where the expansion within the combustion chamber has more time to work at pushing the piston down. Nearer to redline the slower burn rate can't keep up with the descending piston and torque drops. This was seen on my back to back A-B-A trials on a dynamometer. The result is more power (less fuel for same power) at 2000 rpm and more fuel (less power for same fuel) at 4000. Since I drive around 2k rpm (60 mph more or less) my fuel economy loss may be less than other drivers'.

for RoadWarrior: My experiensed with ASTM certified Biodiesel have been positive. I've yet so suffer any more than gelled fuel lines when I push the cold temperature limits of the fuel. Anyone like me that tries to run B100 at 25F deserves to gel.

for smay665949: Fuel from a fossil fuel is still a fossil fuel. The gas-to-liquid (GTL) process of creating diesel fuel is still a petroleum product. It is more energy intensive than extraction of traditional diesel from crude and has an even lower energy balance.
The "coating" on the fuel tanks is the dirt and sludge of petrodiesel from prior use. Biodiesel is a fuel system and injector cleaner that may be too much if used in a vehicle with many, many miles of petrodiesel use. However... Even 150k miles of previous owner's petrodiesel use wasn't enough to create a "coating" on my wagon's fuel tank that another 10k miles on the same fuel filter following my cold-turkey change of its diet to B100 caused any filter clogging.
Biodiesel has far superior lubricating properties to petro diesel. Sulfur is an additive in metal cutting fluids. The reduction from 500 ppm to less than 50 ppm in the current ULSD has reduced the abrasiveness of petrodiesel. 500 PPM diesel is more abrasive than 50 ppm, and 50 ppm is more abrasive than 0 ppm biodiesel.

for Wazabi: The other chemical changes in petro diesel as a result of the sulfur reduction to less than 50 ppm remove the components that had kept the old seals swollen. The seal leaks aren't directly a result of the sulfur reduction, but a 'side effect' of the removal process. Biodiesel has properties that reduce, or can arrest, seal shrink.

I seriously wish I got the 454 version of my truck over the diesel.

Its a good $3000-$4000 less then the diesel version of my truck :mad:

...when new.
What are the comparative values now?
My $3300 2.8 liter gasoline V6 Passat is worth $6500 ~ $8500 now that I've installed the diesel engine.

I'm looking at $4.89in southern Indiana right now. Yikes!!!

Were at around 5.00 bucks right now. The station up the street is 5.19 is the highest in the area as of yesturday. Look 2 months ago I was *****ing at 3.99. look where were at now.
The guys I really feel bad for are the independant truckers that signed contracts.. I do recieve a fuel surcharge of 2.5% for a grand total of $8.50 this wk. But since I started my fuel cost have gone up by almost 1.20 a gallon. I use aprox 11 gal a night. Oh yeah I have slowed down again..

John

The way I look at it the VW rabbits and gulfs would get around 50mpg so if diesel is nearly $5 a gallon that's $.10 per mile last I saw gas here was up to $3.90 a gallon, to get $.10 a mile you would need a gas car that got 39 mpg
A diesel truck that gets 18mpg would be $.27 per mile... a comparable truck would have to get 14mpg for the same fuel cost, last I checked the half ton 2005 dodge truck at work we were getting 11mpg