Bio fuels continue to draw interest
Jim Beach
Contributing Editor
When the price of diesel fuel topped $3 a gallon earlier this year, it created even more interest in biodiesel, a renewable fuel made from vegetable oil feed stocks such as soybean oil, cottonseed oil and recycled cooking oil. In some markets this summer, wholesale prices for petroleum diesel were actually higher than biodiesel, making the fuel more attractive for blending with petroleum diesel fuel.
Also creating more interest are the activities of several states following Minnesota's move last year to mandate a 2 percent biodiesel blend for diesel fuel sold in that state. Minnesota had to put that rule on hold a couple of times following concerns about the fuel's quality.
But that hasn't stopped other states from pursuing similar regulations. In Washington State, for instance, a new bill requires 2 percent of diesel fuel sold to be biodiesel by 2008. Meanwhile, other states are moving bills through their state houses.
Most trucking groups oppose these measures, because of the higher costs, uncertain supply and operational issues associated with the fuel. On the other hand, truckers who use biodiesel tend to praise the environmental and other benefits of the fuel and say the negatives are few. It also helps that federal tax rules offer credits related to alternative fuel production and use, and states are following suit. Plus, recent legislation has prompted increased production of the fuel.
These government incentives can mitigate any extra costs from using an alternative fuel, according to Claude Masters, manager of vehicle acquisitions and fuel for Florida Power and Light.
Speaking at an industry meeting in St. Louis this fall, Masters said FPL runs 3,700 mostly Class 8 vehicles in its service area covering much of Southern Florida. "We started testing in 1999. Our impetus was the Energy Protection Act of 1992, which provided energy credits for converting our fleet to alternative fuel. Our experience with electric vehicles had not been good, so we wanted to try biodiesel."
As part of the early test, FPL instituted engine oil sampling and testing, established internal test criteria and monitored the data for six months. Now, Masters says, the utility is using 400,000 gallons a year of B100 biodiesel fuel, which it blends with diesel to make a B20 (20 percent biodiesel) blend. A distributor delivers the fuel to FPL's facilities. Masters said the last 400,000 gallons of biodiesel he bought was cheaper than petroleum diesel.
The quality of the fuel supply is key, Masters said. He stressed two points: Make sure the fuel meets the ASTM D-6751 standard, and make sure your suppliers are BQ-9000 certified producers.
Masters acknowledged that biodiesel is a powerful solvent. "If your tanks aren't clean, it will clean them and clog the fuel filters. But that's because it's doing its job." He said FPL did not have any problems with clogged filters. They also had no problems with driver acceptance. "It was transparent to the drivers," he said, although he said FPL estimates it loses about 2 percent of the energy of petroleum diesel fuel. For cold weather, they use an aftermarket diesel treatment, and they use a cetane fuel treatment to add a little more power.
Charles "Shorty" Whittington, president of Grammer Industries, said he sees no other option but for trucking to embrace alternatives to petroleum diesel fuel. "For the immediate future, producing more petroleum is not the answer," he said, noting that the U.S. consumes 20 million barrels of oil per day. That demand will increase to 26 million barrels by 2025 along with a jump in world demand as countries such as China and India consume more oil.
Whittington, who runs 25 company trucks and has about 150 owner-operators hauling anhydrous ammonia and other products, recently got into the biodiesel business, producing B100 biodiesel. In an interview with HDT last year, Whittington said the plan was to sell the fuel to distributors, who would blend it with petroleum diesel to make B20 diesel for sale to the trucking industry. He noted at that time that quality was the biggest issue facing biodiesel suppliers, but he felt confident that once those issues were settled, the use of biodiesel would take off. A number of truckers still don't understand the fuel, he said, but as the price of diesel continues to rise, stretching the diesel supply by using more biodiesel could help control the price spikes of recent years.
Roadshow Services, a company that hauls for concert tours such as Santana, Jimmy Buffet and others, uses B99 in the trucks and buses that make up a tour when the artists request it, according to David Kiely, president.
"It started three years ago with the Neil Young tour," Kiely said. Young wanted to burn the fuel because it's cleaner and it helps farmers find a new market for their products. Since then, a number of artists have requested that Roadshow use only biodiesel during the tour. For other tours, the fleet uses petroleum diesel fuel. "We switch back and forth with no problems," Kiely said, noting the fuel works better with newer engines because of how dirty petroleum fuel is. "If you burn it in an older truck, the biodiesel will clean out all of the gunk that's built up and you will really go through filters for the first few tankfuls."
Roadshow gets the biodiesel from distributors all over the country while on the road, with the fuel delivered to the trucks and buses at the concert sites. In some ways, Kiely said, "biodiesel producers are like moonshiners; they all produce their own blend and some blends work better than others."
The drivers like the fuel and, Kiely said, they claim the new trucks run better on the B99 than on standard diesel fuel. They won't run the fuel in the winter, however, because of gelling concerns.
Other movement in the industry includes the recent news that Pacific Biodiesel, based in Maui, Hawaii, started production of biodiesel at its new plant near Dallas.
The Pacific Biodiesel Texas plant is co-owned by Pacific Biodiesel and country music legend Willie Nelson. It is Pacific's Biodiesel's ninth operating plant. According to a company statement, the plant will produce about 8,000 gallons of biodiesel per day using cottonseed oil grown at farms near the plant.
The plant's production will be sold to drivers who stop at the nearby Carl's Corner Truck Stop.
Also, Earth Biofuels Inc. announced it would begin acquiring and operating retail service stations through its newly created subsidiary American Earth Fuels Co., which will create a principle distribution channel for Earth Biofuels. The stations will sell biodiesel, ethanol fuel products and traditional petroleum-based fuels.
If you're interested in learning where you can get biodiesel, the National Biodiesel Board offers a Biodiesel Hotline, a toll free number truckers can call to find retail outlets selling the fuel anywhere in the U.S.
The hotline, at 866-BIODIESEL, operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week and has access to mapping software linked to a database of biodiesel retailers.
The National Biodiesel Board said that more than 600 fleets use biodiesel and the fuel is available at more than 800 retail refueling locations.
Bio Fuels continued...
