Commentary

Bio-Diesel is regular heating oil mixed with 10-20% soybean oil depending on the vendor.  No oil burner adjustments required, no new equipment to purchase or maintain, no up front investment to make.  Home oil burners burns bio-diesel just fine. 

Yes, the soybean oil creates CO2 when it is burned just like the heating oil but the CO2 from the soybean oil came from the atmosphere last year.  The CO2 from the diesel came from dinosaurs millions of years ago.  So the soybean CO2 is a net zero emission.

Another benefit besides the reduced CO2 emissions is that the bio-diesel produces less sulfur when it is burned.  Less sulfur equals cleaner air.

What is the downside?  Bio-diesel is not available from all heating oil vendors and it’s possible that it’s not available in your area.  In Massachusetts, roughly 160 communities are served by bio-diesel heating oil vendors.  BioDiesel.org locates bio-diesel vendors for you across the US.

The other downside is that bio-diesel is more expensive than regular heating oil.  In Massachusetts, the current price according to Massachusetts Energy Consumers Alliance is $2.70 gallon compared with roughly $2.31 gallon for regular heating oil.  An average oil heat household burns 700 gallons of oil per year.  So the price difference comes to roughly $24 a month. 

A Massachusetts bio-diesel dealer, Bursaw Gas and Oil, reports that bio-diesel is selling but that the current price differential is holding sales back and that he is working to reduce the price differential.

700 gallons of heating oil produces 15,600 pounds of CO2, a significant part of a household’s carbon footprint.  Switching to bio-diesel (B20 – 20% soybean oil, 80% heating oil) saves you 20% of your oil emissions or 3,120 pounds.

In the meantime, for the price of 3 movie tickets per month, switch to bio-diesel and take 3100 pounds of CO2 off of your carbon footprint.