Do generators work on biodiesel ? if yes how reliable ?

Question

Do generators work on biodiesel ? if yes how reliable ?

Answer 1

yes, they are great, and they help us in many ways...

Answer 2

If it can run on diesel, then it can run on biodiesel. It should be as reliable as it was when you ran it on regular diesel...

Answer 3

Dr. Diesel invented the compression ignition engine to run on vegetable oil, so yes a conventional diesel powered generator would run on bio-diesel.

The problems with bio-fuels is that there is not enough acreage in North America to grow the amount of crops needed to replace the oil used in transportation today. Does that mean that we go to another country to buy bio-fuels, like, oh say, Brazil? That makes us dependent on other countries for our energy again and we all know how that turned out with our petroleum dependency. Combine that with the fact that you are still carbon loading the atmosphere, what is the long term advantage?

Answer 4

If it's a diesel generator the answer is yes!

I run bio diesel in my Nissan, its an early model 89 with LD20mk2 engine, at the moment I can only get my hands on about 20-30 liters a week. Used frying oil (canola) is what i use, there is also a little bit of fat ie from meat products. but once filtered, my car runs fine has done for 20000 km, the only thing that does need doing that I recommend is to put some form of preheating device onto the fuel line as canola likes to be hotter than diesel to get the best out of it. With mine I have a copper tube wrapped around my coolant pipe at the front of the motor, this then goes into my fuel filter.The only problem I have is cold starting once its warmed up it goes better than on diesel alone. At the moment I'm running around 65% bio to 35% diesel once I can secure a better supply that will run to 100%. With some playing around with the timing on the fuel pump you can get some good results re power or ecomomy likewise with adjusting the mixture control ie leaning it out just a tad gives real good results. Whereas with diesel to get some go out of it i had to have exaust pipe running dark at full noise with bio it runs a hazy pipe with minimal light brown smoke at 5000 rpm. Where we are there are some pretty mean hills sea level to 1100ft in a 4km line and it does it in 2nd with a drop to 1st on the steepest parts but still pulling around 60kmh. Once I get a 5 speed manual for it I will be happy. Not to bad for a non turbo 2.0l diesel in a 1200 -1400kg vehicle. On a trip depending on the hills I average between 13.7 - 16.45km/l sitting at between 100- 120kmh. As for a diesel generator running constant speed you should get pretty good results.

Answer 5

Biodiesel may also gel at a higher temperature than regular diesel fuel.  In other words, if it is extremely cold, biodiesel may solidify, rendering it useless.

Answer 6

If it is a diesel fuel generator then yes. I used to drive an 18 wheeler that had an APU(Auxillary Power Unit), more or less a generator for the truck so that you can still have electricity, heat/AC, etc. without running the truck's main engine. I ran Biodiesel in both power units including the reefer trailer that I pulled and to be totally honest with you I got better fuel milage with the biodiesel than with conventional diesel. The only drawback to biodiesel is that your exhaust smells like french fries. And on reliability, I drove about 150,000 miles on biodiesel, and I never had any trouble other than regular prevenative maintence.