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Biodiesel and Oil Boilers

Dirk Wright
Dirk Wright Member Posts: 142
NORA has a great article on their web site nora-oilheat.org about low sulfur home heating oil.

Comments

  • Paul Cooke
    Paul Cooke Member Posts: 181
    Small Condensing Boiler

    Does someone make a small condensing boiler for use with biodiesel?
  • Constantin
    Constantin Member Posts: 3,796
    Not to my knowledge... yet.

    Allegedly, in the US the big hold-up is the burner manufacturers. Take a gander over to the OilTechTalk web site and search through the discussions. Once the seal issues are resolved, anything above B20 may no longer be problematic. One thing to keep in mind is that Veggie Oil has 10kBTU less per gallon than #2, so your "fuel economy" will go down about 5% when you make the switch.

    Aside from all that, only one condensing oil boiler is currently sold in the US, and that's the Monitor FCX, which is a 76kBTU/hr DoE boiler. It would be pretty simple to call Heat Wise, their burner manufacturer, and ask them about their position re: the use of BioDiesel in their burner. Other components that touch fuel (spin-on filters, line seals, etc.) will also require upgraded seals. One material that gets mentioned a lot in this context is Viton.

    For what it's worth, I am going with low-sulfur B5 this winter. Perhaps next winter higher percentages will be available locally. Should be good for the flue if we have condensation (because of its lower sulfur content) and possibly increase system efficiency (less caking on the inner HX surface).
  • Dirk Wright
    Dirk Wright Member Posts: 142
    Burning Biodiesel...

    Thanks for the great post Constantin! Another issue is UL approval. I called up Toyotomi and asked them if it was OK to burn biodiesel in their tankless hot water heater. They said it was not approved by UL for that fuel. Apparently, these burners are approved by UL only for specific fuels, and the manufacturer will not approve any other. So, calling them up may lead to a dead end.

    I tried to get low sulfur #2 around here in Virginia, but no one has it. I'd love to use it, since it's so much better than ordinary #2, and it burns cleaner than natural gas!
  • Paul Cooke
    Paul Cooke Member Posts: 181
    Thanks for the replies

    How does Low Sulpher #2 compare to biodiesel?

    I understand that with cars your diesel engine will last longer and stay cleaner with biodiesel.

    Seems like your boiler would stay cleaner also.

  • Constantin
    Constantin Member Posts: 3,796
    A couple of thoughts...

    Regular #2 oil can contain up to 1700PPM of sulfur, among other impurities. As a result, the flue gases are quite acidic.

    Low sulfur #2 contains about 50PPM of sulfur, IIRC, and biodiesel contains only trace amounts of the stuff, so the actual sulfur content should drop by simple fractions between the biodiesel and the #2 oil. Thus, I might be able to expect my future heating oil to be contaminated at max 48PPM with sulfur.

    That'll take a while to digest though, as I usually schedule deliveries around the 1/4 mark and the remaining #2 in the bottom of the tank is likely to be 500PPM sulfur or thereabouts (allegedly, they've delivered automotive-grade diesel, which has a lower allowable contamination level than heating oil). Well, by the second or third tankfull I should be pretty low on the sulfur-side, I guess.
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