100 Percent Veggie Oil Tractor

100 Percent Veggie Oil Tractor ENERGY Alternative Fuels 31-5-39 While all tractor brands are approving some percentage of crop-based fuel in their engines, nobody is suggesting using 100 percent veggie oil. That hasn't stopped Glenn Cauffman, manager of farms and facilities at Penn State University. Three New Holland diesel tractors have been running for months on nothing but B100 made from soybean oil with zero petroleum content. Other tractors occasionally run on the pure veggie oil. The reason he's using New Holland tractors is that it's the only company that has approved the experiment and offered to back the warranty while Cauffman experiments. "We have about 500 hours on each of the first two, and this spring we added a 150 hp New Holland T7040 with a Tier III emissions approved engine," he reports. "We have about 100 hours on it. We can't detect any difference in power or fuel use between them and similar tractors on straight diesel fuel. We don't see a power difference even when they are on the dynamometer." Cauffman credits high quality fuel for the results. They required the vendor to supply analysis of the biodiesel, proving that it meets industry standard ASTM6751. Cauffman says the vendor claims to be analyzing every tanker truck of fuel when it is delivered. "The biggest concern of the industry is fuel quality," says Cauffman. "Fendt endorses the use of B100 in Europe, but not in this country. It all boils down to quality. There is no enforcement system of fuel quality in this country. We as customers have to insist on high quality fuel. The government will never do it for us." Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Manager of Farms and Facilities, College of Agricultural Sciences, Farm Services, University Park, Penn. 16802 (ph 814 865-4433; grc1@psu.edu).

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