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"If you took 100% concentration of [any product], it will have some impact," says Borgman. "At 5% concentration, 95% of the impact is going to be mitigated."

This is why many manufacturers recommend starting with B2 and B5 blends. "We do that to try to mitigate some of the different characteristics. We want the public to get familiar with it on a more gradual scale and not have bad experiences," says Borgman. "What we are really trying to do is get people educated and make sure all of the compatibility issues are resolved. There are some different things we need to learn to run biodiesel."

Pearson also points out that no modifications are needed to engines to run B20 blends or below.

More testing required
Biodiesel can offer some important benefits. "Biodiesel increases the lubricity of the fuel, which can result in longer fuel pump and injector life," says Kris Stearns, fuel and coolant engineer, Caterpillar.

And test data going back nearly a decade indicates it is a safe fuel. "[Caterpillar] has done testing with biodiesel starting back in the mid-1990s," says Stearns. "We have shown that our engines run well on it. In particular, some of the older engine models can run very well on even B100. There really have not been any performance issues with it."