I got up at 5 this morning and immediately put on my fleece pants, top and socks. (It’s a bummer that fleece is so great when it’s derived from petroleum). I was still cold so I turned the heat on — not petroleum.
Thor and I have almost pure biodiesel (B99) in our oil furnace. We bought it from Star Oil, who bought it from SeQuential Biofuel. So we’re heating our house with used vegetable oil from restaurants and Kettle Foods. Recycling on a new level. And it reduces our home heating’s carbon dioxide emissions by 73%.
Our only claim to any sacrifice here is that we paid slightly more for biodiesel, and have had some fuel pump challenges. If you know where to find a fuel pump specifically designed for B99, please tell me where in the comment section below.
Biodiesel, I have finally figured out, is a different animal from ethanol, with a much lower carbon footprint. I’ll devote a future post to that. But right now, I have to work on firming up my carpool plans for my first day of work at ODOT on Tuesday.
Diamond-Cut Life 
This is just one more step closer to reducing the Carbon footprint and a good one at that. Although no one in my area sells bio fuel, I am still using fossil fuel and wood combined to heat my home. I am also off setting the high cost of energy by investing into solar energy companies Like “First Solar” (FSLR) bought 6 shares and made $359.00 last week. This amount brings my overall energy costs down and helps the solar companies get bigger and I feel good about that.
I am glad to see more people using high concentrations of biodiesel to replace petroleum. I have made biodiesel for family and friends to heat with for several years and it works well. Farmers are using it on an increasing basis in their equipment also. We have hand no problems with the standard Suntec pumps over this time,but follow this link to an article on a webster pump with viton seals designed to run B100: http://www.biodieselmagazine.com/article.jsp?article_id=746. Good luck. I hope more people start using and promoting biodiesel.
Great to hear you are using biodiesel in your home heating furnace!
If you are looking to run high blends of biodiesel in your furnace, SeQuential recommends Portland Green Heat (http://www.portlandgreenheat.com/) – they have a ton of experience upgrading furnaces.
Sasha Friedman
SeQuential Biofuels (SQbiofuels.com)
Hi
Nice article , I didn’t even know you could buy biodiesel :}
I am doing research to see if it is worth making biodiesel for home heating,personal use only…looks like it is.