@Dept:
Biodiesel Distribution
A major concern for any fleet thinking about fueling its trucks with biodiesel is availability. According to the National Biodiesel Board, there are currently 105 plants producing the fuel in the United States, most of those concentrated in the Midwest.
Rich Cilento, CEO of FuelQuest, a fuel management firm headquartered in Houston, says the fuel is drawing increasing interest and his company is prepared to begin offering customers the tools they need to manage biodiesel.
"We are also looking toward providing capabilities through our system as the biodiesel industry matures," he says. "Customers will also be able to procure biodiesel with our service. If they need a particular blend – say a B20 – we would have that product type identified and as biodiesel producers come on line, we can execute the same process we use with straight diesel fuel. We would manage the logistics from point A to point B."
Cilento expects there to be even more interest in the fuel and says that by the end of the year, there should be 150 plants in the U.S. producing biodiesel. The Biodiesel Board features a producer and distributor map on its web site, www.biodiesel.org, and also offers other buying guidelines for fleet managers.
Most fleets using the fuel have it delivered to their terminals where they refuel their vehicles. Finding it over the road can still be difficult. While biodiesel groups point to a growing list of retail sites, there are still fewer than 1,000 retail outlets nationwide. Most of those are concentrated, like the producers, in the Midwest.
In an interview last year, Dave Kiely, president of Roadshow Services, a company that hauls for concert tours such as Santana, Jimmy Buffet and others, said they use B99 in their trucks and buses when the performers request it. 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. He warned that not all biodiesel fuel is the same and that "some blends work better than others."
The NBB has been working with producers over the last few years on industry standards for biodiesel and recommends fleets contact several potential suppliers and verify the quality of the fuel before filling their tanks with it.
Fuel Special continued...
