New Land Speed Record Showcases Power, Efficiency of B20

Oklahoma soybean farmer takes B20 to new speeds

 

How fast can your soybeans go? Brent Hajek, a soybean farmer from Ames, Okla., knows.

Earlier this year, Hajek broke the land speed record driving a Ford F-250 truck powered with B20, a diesel blend that consists of 20 percent biodiesel. His trial at Utah’s Bonneville Salt Flats set a new record of 182 miles per hour.

“There’ve been a lot of questions in our industry about the performance of B20 and how it compares to standard diesel and that kind of intrigued me,” explains Hajek, of why he wanted to do this run with B20. “The more I thought about it, the more I wanted to do it.”

But Hajek knew he couldn’t jump in his pickup truck and take off. So he turned to Ford Motor Company to see what assistance they could offer him. Hajek has worked with Ford on several other projects and knew that the company had interest in biofuels.

“Ford was a big part of the equation,” adds Hajek. “We worked with the engineers from the beginning and this truck is designed to be B20 compatible.”

Hajek contacted the Missouri Soybean Merchandising Council to get B20 to Ford so their engineers could put the mostly soy-based biofuel through tests for power and efficiency. The performance of B20 impressed Ford’s engineers. And with those test results supporting B20 in the F-250 Powerstroke, Hajek decided to showcase this biofuel.

Before taking his B20-powered Ford F-250 to the salt flats though, Hajek and his team ran plenty of tests. They took the truck to the Lockheed Martin Wind Tunnel to make sure it could handle high speeds; after all, no one had ever run a speed trial with this model. After this, Hajek had a good handle on how the truck was going to perform.

Once they got out to the Bonneville Salt Flats Hajek broke the land speed record in the F-250 with standard diesel going about 171 miles per hour. Between runs, Hajek and his team switched fuels and let the truck idle to make sure the F-250 was running on pure B20. Other than that, the truck did not require any calibration changes.

“We drained the diesel and put in B20 and went 182,” adds Hajek. “You know, it really raised some eyebrows.”