does biodiesel produce black smoke?

1618 Views 8 Replies 5 Participants Last post by GiacGtiAgain, Oct 17, 2008

GiacGtiAgain

Discussion Starter · Oct 17, 2008

My school (Stony Brook University) has biodiesel buses. I have always had a sneaky suspicion that while the buses are capable of running on biofuel...they don't. This would mean the University has been misleading students for quite some time, frequently bragging about this fact. The buses produce black smoke occasionally under acceleration, and the area around the tailpipe on every bus is completely 100 percent black with carbon buildup or whatever the hell it is. Does biofuel burn this way?
If it does, how else could i verify whether or not they use biofuel short of watching them re-fuel?

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WannaCorrado

· #2 · Oct 17, 2008

Re: does biodiesel produce black smoke? (GiacGtiAgain)

bio diesel burns the same way as regular diesel.

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GiacGtiAgain

Discussion Starter · #3 · Oct 17, 2008

Re: does biodiesel produce black smoke? (WannaCorrado)

perhaps the title is misleading or wrong, but considering the source, i took it pretty seriously. is the title incorrect?
http://www.hno.harvard.edu/gaz....html

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WhiteRat

· #4 · Oct 17, 2008

Re: does biodiesel produce black smoke? (GiacGtiAgain)

Quote, originally posted by GiacGtiAgain »

perhaps the title is misleading or wrong, but considering the source, i took it pretty seriously. is the title incorrect?
http://www.hno.harvard.edu/gaz....html

According to that, they're using B20, which is 20% bio/80% dino.

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GiacGtiAgain

Discussion Starter · #5 · Oct 17, 2008

Re: does biodiesel produce black smoke? (WhiteRat)

Quote, originally posted by WhiteRat »

According to that, they're using B20, which is 20% bio/80% dino.

if my school does the same thing, that would be contentious enough to make a story out of. i think given the black smoke i see, they must be doing at least that.

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WhiteRat

· #6 · Oct 17, 2008

Re: does biodiesel produce black smoke? (GiacGtiAgain)

Quote, originally posted by GiacGtiAgain »

if my school does the same thing, that would be contentious enough to make a story out of. i think given the black smoke i see, they must be doing at least that.

More than likely they only use B20. Straight B100 would be prohibitively expensive to buy in large quantities for a fleet.

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ArtieLange

· #7 · Oct 17, 2008

Re: does biodiesel produce black smoke? (WhiteRat)

Quote, originally posted by WhiteRat »

More than likely they only use B20. Straight B100 would be prohibitively expensive to buy in large quantities for a fleet.

Yeah, I just paid $5.99 a gallon for B100 the other day... On B100 my Passat didn't smoke at all. My Touareg had 3/4 tank of dino already, so it is still smoking under hard acceleration, just not as much. They could be running B5 and still be "running biodiesel".

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HarryHood

· #8 · Oct 17, 2008

Re: does biodiesel produce black smoke? (GiacGtiAgain)

Quote, originally posted by GiacGtiAgain »

if my school does the same thing, that would be contentious enough to make a story out of. i think given the black smoke i see, they must be doing at least that.

I guess you could be a douchebag about it and try to make a big federal case out of it, or you could just appreciate that they are doing the best they can with what is technically and financially feasible nowadays. Better that they run B20 than B0. http://****************.com/smile/emthup.gif

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GiacGtiAgain

Discussion Starter · #9 · Oct 17, 2008

Re: does biodiesel produce black smoke? (HarryHood)

Quote, originally posted by HarryHood »

if you went there you'd understand. this is way out of character for me, i don't really care ::gasp:: about the environment so much, at least not enough to write about it. However, there are many problems here that I could get into, and simply put, I like bringing the school down a peg when i can. That's all.

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