True, but anything "produced" from a raw material vs. something extracted from the ground will be more energy intensive. Since HVO is made from waste biomass, there is some recapture of energy, which normally would be lost if it were disposed of. This offset could be factored into the equation as well. Honestly, I don't really care.
My next 7500 mile oil analysis will be done completely running of HVO. It will be interesting to see what the wear numbers will be. For me, as long as my truck is sucking EGR, I will continue to use HVO.
I really wonder what the true cost of this fuel is? If it wasn't subsidized by CCs, how much $/gal?
In order to break the biomass down you have to use a catalyst that costs about the same per gallon as diesel before you put in methanol. I used to have a friend who was taking spent ligne from cellulosic bio fuel and fueling a labrotory diesel electric generator. It was supplementing power for the batch reactors and computer monitoring where he was attempting to make 3rd generation cellulosic based fuel on an industrial scale. Costs were enormous.
One of these days I am going to convert my truck to run on cng. No shortage of cng down here in Texas. Not sure about Canada.
Diesel is so cheap right now and the curve is only getting better as the Chinese continue to build more refineries and the museum States in Europe and California continue to outlaw hydrocarbons effectively lessening the cost of diesel for the rest of us.
Have you ever calculated the cost of replacing the entire engine over fuel cost/consumption? Just curious if it would be cheaper to buy a crate and where the breakeven point is for hvo vs diesel adjusting for mileage.
I have a 300 TDI with 100k on clock and had to rebuild the complete upper assembly but the lower was fine running filthy offroad diesel for most of its life. <== About 1000 US
I have a cummins 5.9 with 360k on the clock and have only had to change the pump <== about 1200
I would guess this motor complete costs about 5-6k.