Testing diesel fuel

[tnt_motorsports]

All, I have been searching with not a lot of luck on the WWW... Does anyone know if you can test diesel for the percentage of biodiesel? I found fuel at a local station that the pumps are not marked for biodiesel. I am curious to know if the fuel is in fact diesel (less than 5%) or biodiesel (5-20%). I have used this fuel for a couple of tanks and haven't seen a noticeable change in fuel economy so I am wondering if it is really diesel. Hopefully I will know more in a couple weeks when I tow my TT. I get 10%+ better MPG when towing with diesel versus biodiesel.

Biodiesel is everywhere in Iowa (Casey's, Shell, Kwik Trip, Murphy etc) and trying to find regular diesel is very rare, so I am doubting this is in fact diesel. There may not be a quick method like ethanol in gasoline but figured I would ask this group.

Thanks in advance!

 

[RooflessVW]

What's wrong with B5-20?

Should lend better lubricity and cleanliness

 

[JohnnyG]

At the terminal level, we only tested for Flash Point and cloud point in the winter. Biodiesel can raise the cloud point, which would determine the amount of kerosene to blend in for "winter blend" fuel. This mostly was for truck stop suppliers to be used in vehicles, including OTR trucks.
Injectors were calibrated on a regular basis for lubricity additive. I retired just when biodiesel was becoming mainstream, so not sure just how that blending is being achieved.
I do know samples are sent to the Main Lab every month to insure fuel quality.
And every reciept is tested for flash point.

 

[tnt_motorsports]

What's wrong with B5-20?

Should lend better lubricity and cleanliness

for the simple reason of mileage impact. It is the same as E0 and E10 gasoline. If I can buy E0 for the same price as E10 and get better mileage with E0, then I think that is a win. In some random testing I get about 10% better MPG's with diesel than biodiesel. Diesel is just extremely hard to find. To make biodiesel worth the cost I need the cost to be 10% less than regular diesel. At 3.199 for this diesel, I need the biodiesel to be less than $2.87 using simple math. The problem is the biodiesel is $3.19 or more...

As far as the station I asked about, it does seem to be diesel based on my towing. I was getting better mileage than usual this weekend when towing. I will keep using it for sure until something changes.

Just my $0.02