Bioheat® fuel is a renewable liquid heating fuel that is produced in the United States. Bioheat® fuel is a blend of biodiesel, made renewable resources such as used cooking oils, rendered animal fats, soybean oil and other oils from plants and vegetables, mixed with ultra-low sulfur heating oil.
Bioheat® fuel cuts your carbon footprint as soon as you start using it. The biodiesel component lowers the already-low emissions of the fuel. A 20% blend can cut carbon emissions by nearly 15%.1 Bioheat® fuel also lubricates your heating equipment so it runs more efficiently, and you need to use less fuel to get the same amount of comfort.
Bioheat® fuel is a drop-in replacement for traditional home heating oil. If you have an oil-fueled heating system, you only need to contact your local heating oil retailer and ask for it. If you live in New York, Rhode Island or Connecticut, you are already using it, because Bioheat® fuel is the standard for all home heating oil in the state!
Bioheat® fuel can be delivered in blends from 2% to 100% (pure biodiesel). You can tell how much biodiesel is in your fuel by the “B” number in your company’s documents. B2 Bioheat® fuel is 2% biodiesel. B20 is 20%, B50 is 50%, and so on. You may also hear the blends identified by different names: Bioheat® fuel generally refers to B2-B5 blends; Bioheat Plus® fuel refers to B6-B20, and blends of B20-B100 are known as Bioheat SuperPlus® fuel.
Right now, the Bioheat® fuel used in most homes is from blends ranging from 2% to 20% biodiesel. Biodiesel is a completely renewable and net-zero carbon fuel. But Bioheat® fuel is getting better every day. Many liquid fuel dealers deliver B50 or B100 (pure biodiesel). Customers are already combining B100 fuel with solar panels to heat their homes with net-zero, and in some cases negative, carbon emissions. In fact, by 2030, the biodiesel in Bioheat® fuel will have displaced 529 million gallons of petroleum in heating oil, and if every home in the Northeast used just a B10 blend, it would eliminate up to 100 million gallons of oil2 – enough to fill your home’s storage tank more than 363,635 times!
NO! Bioheat® fuel can be used in any existing oil-fueled heating system. New heating equipment is now certified as compatible with B20 by UL Standards and Testing and in December 2022 the UL updated its standards to include testing to certify equipment for use with Bioheat® fuels up to 100% (B100) biodiesel.
You should use a local Bioheat® fuel company for your fuel delivery and equipment service and repair because they consider you a person, not an account number. The average Bioheat® fuel retailer is a community business with only about 5,000 customers in neighboring counties. These Main Street companies pride themselves on personal service. The people in the office know the names and families of their customers, and the same technicians will come to the house year after year. The utilities serve as many as 20 million accounts across multiple states3, and their business strategy is to increase profits for their shareholders. In 2022, utilities saw profits increase 6% - 10%, up to $12.3 billion for American Electric Power4 and $17 billion for PG&E.5
