alienbogey
Veteran Member
Anyone know what the price for BioDiesel at the pump near Port of Tacoma is these days? I'm thinking with the last price I paid of $2.89 for dino maybe the bioD is close to the same.
Sorry for getting a bit off track but what is this bad batch of bio? I bought some from Laurelhurst Oil on 9/03 and wonder if this is from the same batch? I was at SeattleBio website and blog and no mention or caution of "problematic" fuel. Is this just the Tacoma station or Laurelhurst oil which Seattle Bio supplies as well? I would hope they would at least caution if there is a problem as some have stored quantities of yet unused fuel. There should be nothing wrong in admitting a glitch in a batch but to not alert its customers...well that is not good. I would rather dump a few gallons than risk using it if it doesn't meet spec.I spoke on the phone with Luke at APP today.
It seems some folks are having some fuel filter clogging issues with their fuel (supplied by Seattle Biodiesel) when run in concentrations greater than B50. Which is what I typically run and I've had no problems.
As a result, APP is closing the biodiesel pumps, sucking out all the fuel and replacing it with World Energy biodiesel on Monday 9/19. So no bean juice till Monday.
Seattle Biodiesel is buying back the fuel and is working on solving the problem. Luke, at APP, said they won't buy from SBD until they get the problem solved.
Good People, both at APP and Seattle Biodiesel. I hope they get the process perfected soon. I want to see local production of feedstock and fuel processing succeed!
-Matt
I'm with you on this one FlyTDI Guy. I purchased 2 gallons to blend @ 5% from Laurelhurst Oil Union Bay on 9/3This pisses me off. I hope I dodged a bullet on this one. Having filled up on the 11th, I am certainly in the 'window' of possiblity that this effects me as well. This is the primary reason I have always been skeptical of Bio: Quality control. I refuse to put my car at risk for the sake of 'doing the right thing'. I, for one, am not willing to extend that to damaging my vehicle and suffering substantial financial losses due to bad fuel. My contribution to the 'cause' is the fact that I bought an extreme mileage car and use far less resources than most. I think I will leave it at that.
September 28, 2005
Has Seattle Biodiesel experienced fuel quality problems?
Yes, during our start-up phase (we began production in May of 2005 after exceeding the ASTM 6751 standards) we have experienced production and testing issues that have unfortunately led to some bad fuel batches entering the market. Starting in late August, some customers using high blends (B99) began to experience filter clogs when the weather changed to cool nights (below 55F). Some retailers reported a white precipitate at the bottom of their tanks and reported a similar substance in affected fuel filters. Analysis of the fuel indicated an elevated level of free and total glycerin relative to the ASTM specification. While other biodiesel producers have experienced similar white precipitate issues even with in specification fuel, we decided this was not acceptable to have our customers deal with fuel quality issues in the field and have aggressively addressed the issue.
Seattle Biodiesel has worked diligently with our distribution, retail and end user customer over the last few weeks to identify the root cause. When the out of specification condition was verified, we immediately notified our customers, recalled all the fuel in the market and halted further sales. After exhaustive R&D, production process analysis, and significant investment in additional on site testing capacity, we are once again making fuel that exceeds the standards. We began to supply to customers fully verified fuel free of the identified glycerin issue on September 28. We are confident through our own internal and externally verified testing that our current fuel batches exceed all ASTM and BQ9000 specifications for biodiesel. In addition to our recent investments, Seattle Biodiesel has started a project to become fully BQ 9000 certified.
Seattle Biodiesel stands behind our fuel 100%. To meet our goals of producing the best quality fuel at the best possible price, we have made significant investments and continue to invest in technology and infrastructure. Any customer who has experienced fuel related problems with Seattle Biodiesel fuel should contact your distributor or retailer for a full and complete resolution. We thank our customers for their continued support as we work to scale up production at the Northwest's first commercial scale biodiesel refinery.