Low Carbon Fuels Industry News
MEMA Portal to State Legislators
With support from Global Partners LP, the Massachusetts
Energy Marketers Association (MEMA) has launched a
simple but powerful advocacy tool that members can now
use to reach their state representatives and senators via
email, phone or Twitter. MEMA is asking members to
visit the portal today and communicate with their elected
officials regarding climate legislation (Senate bill No. 9)
by using the customizable email copy MEMA provided.
Beckett Expands B20 Compatible
Commercial Burners
To meet the challenge of creating products that can perform
at higher biodiesel blends, R.W. Beckett has approved its
commercial burners CF375, CF500, and CF800 for use with
biodiesel blends up to 20% (D396 for B6-B20). For more info,
visit beckettcorp.com.
Patent for Small Batch Oil Delivery
Jeffrey Suntup, New London, CT, was issued a second patent
(U.S. Patent No. 10,875,760) for the PUTNUS device,
a method to deliver heating oil to homes with a small tank
(just under 119 gallons), pump, hose and measuring/metering
system that issues a stamped receipted meter ticket. It is
mounted on a skid for portability. The pump can dispense oil
quantities of 1, 5, or 25 gallons. When the small tank is filled
with heating oil, the apparatus weighs less than 1500 pounds
and can be placed and carried on the bed of an un-placarded
truck, which requires a regular driver’s license to operate.
PERC Learning Center
Propane Education & Research Council (PERC)’s portal
now gives immediate access to completed certificates for
the Certified Employee Training Program (CETP). All
earned CETP certificates will be stored electronically on
The Learning Center within the transcript page of each
user’s account, downloadable at any time. PERC will no
longer mail certificates. This change is expected to improve
accuracy and reduce certificate processing costs. For more
info, visit propane.com/propane-learning-center/.
U.S. Boiler’s Gas-Adaptive Boiler
U.S. Boiler Co. has released the new Alta Combi boiler, a
gas-adaptive combi boiler with 10:1 turndown. The high efficiency
condensing boiler provides short installation time
and low operating costs with a “no touch” combustion setup,
no manual throttle or offset adjustments and a five-minute
start up. It features continuous, automatic self-calibration
of burner combustion by adapting to component wear, variations
in fuel, environment and vent air pressure to provide
safe, efficient and clean combustion at all times, U.S. Boiler
Co. said. For more info, visit usboiler.net.
Robison Oil Celebrates 100 Years
Robison Oil of Westchester and Putnam Counties, NY, is
celebrating its 100th anniversary. The company opened in
1921 as a family-run business with a gas station and auto
parts store. The Singer family, owners of Original Oil since
1928, bought Robison in 1984, and the company now has
200 employees and more than 20,000 clients.
With the need to reduce greenhouse gases the oilheating industry is
transitioning to blending increasingly higher levels of low carbon
liquid fuels into the heating oil. Equipment manufacturers are
developing products to accommodate these blends.
Indoor Comfort Marketing had a chat with R.W. Beckett’s
Product Manager, Craig Butler.
ICM: Why has Beckett released oil burners rated & certified
to burn a 20% biodiesel blend?
Butler: Due to the Providence Resolution* and
other initiatives, the oilheat industry is moving
towards higher and higher blends of lowcarbon
renewable fuels, whether it is biodiesel,
renewable diesel, or ethyl levulinate (EL). To that
end, we started to work with our vendors and UL
to get the UL296 certification which defines the
testing for oil burners expanded to allow the D396 fuel oil spec that
included B6 to B20 blends. As soon as UL296 was amended, we
were ready to start testing our burners. When the testing cleared,
we approved our AF and AFG burners for operation with B20 in
September 2020. Subsequently, we were able have some of our
lighter commercial burners approved as well as our clean-cut pump
and our line of tank accessories.
We know the industry intends and needs to move to even higher
blends and B20 is only a step. Is the next step B50 or directly to
B100? Perhaps it is a blend of the various low-carbon fuels that
may include biodiesel, renewable diesel and maybe EL. The RW
Beckett team is already working on combustion and fuel handling
solutions with these fuels.
ICM: How is the B20 burner different than the standard burner?
Butler: It has a lot more to do with the pump and making sure it
could operate with biodiesel blends up to 20%. We had originally
looked at the yellow metal components (i.e., copper fuel line) as a
possible issue. However, the industry consensus is that the yellow
metals have minimal effect at B20, we have accepted that.
The fuels that we can use under our UL certification fall under
ASTM D396 which, in the past, included just traditional petroleum
heating oil. In 2008, D396 was amended to allow up to 5% biodiesel
and therefore, no additional testing or certification for the burners
was required. To include higher blends, ASTM created an additional
subset of D396 to include blends of B6 to B20. Our burners were
not certified for this blend and we had to go through the approval
process. This was the big hurdle to get the B20 burners into the
market. The combustion with the bio blends had to be tested and
compared against combustion with traditional heating oil for things
like BTU input, flow rates, cold flow properties, and light-off with
cold fuel. It required a battery of tests.
Going forward, the ASTM standard for the fuel drives the UL
standard for performance with that fuel. The fact that there is
currently no ASTM standard for fuel blends above B20 is holding
us back from even higher rated burners.
ICM: How do you see biodiesel & other low-carbon liquid fuels
fitting into the future or are they the future of the industry?
Butler: It is the future of the industry, plain and simple—we must go
to these renewable fuels. The whole industry well-being depends
on the ability to adopt these fuels as quickly as possible. The retail
marketers also have a big role to play through the acceptance, the
use, the proper handling of the fuels and the education of their
technicians. ICM
* See https://bit.ly/3vbeS2d
26 ICM/March/April 2021