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Biodiesel Takes Root
Welcome to Good Dirt Radio…reporting on positive change…taking root.
The use of bio-fuels continues to grow… More and more individuals, school districts and corporations are fueling their diesel cars, trucks and metro-buses with plant based bio-diesel.
Biodiesel is now available in different blends all the way from 2 to 100%, or B100, which is pure bio fuel.
Its no coincidence that diesel engines run so well on vegetable oil! Rudolph Diesel invented his engine to run on locally grown German peanut oil back in 1910. Several other domestically produced oils such as canola, soy and sunflower have been proven in today’s diesels as cleaner burning and, with blending, functional in cold weather.
Someone who’s been closely involved with this growth process is John Long who started Blue Sun Biodiesel in his Fort Collins, CO garage, just 4 years ago.
Long: : We definitely started from humble beginnings and now we have a robust brokering business selling B100 to our network of distributors, who then blend and redistribute that as Blue Sun B20 which is 20 percent biodiesel, 80 percent diesel and a proprietary additive package that improves performance of the fuel. We’re currently building our first plant, starting to develop a second and third plant. We had 10 retail pumps this time last year, now we have twenty-five, we hope to have fifty by next year, upwards of 100 shortly thereafter. As pricing becomes more competitive, we’re definitely going to see more interest from the retail sector. But right now that only accounts for 10 percent of our sales, 90 percent being fleets. Most recently, one of our biggest accounts became Denver Public Schools. We had fifty buses running on our fuel for the past six months and recently they announced they’re going to expand the biodiesel program to all 450 buses that they operate.
Long credits biodiesel’s rapid growth to many factors, including the high price of petroleum, concerns about dependence on foreign oil and a one-dollar per gallon EPA tax-credit on pure biodiesel that recently went into effect. Values like superior lubricity, significantly reduced pollution and heightened economic benefits are creating a flood of new customers in the biodiesel market.
Long: Now we’re starting to break into some new markets that we never really imagined would happen. Like the oil and gas industry, some oil drilling companies, gas drilling companies are using our fuel in their rigs. Power plants have started using our fuel in their turbines to create electricity. Railways have been using our fuel in locomotives.
Biodiesel use among citizens that purchase B20 OR B100 is continuing to grow at retail pumps across the country. Mark Larkin drives his Truck out of his way from his home outside Santa Fe, NM to a gas station downtown, just to fill up with B20.
Larkin: As soon as it became I available, I read their pamphlets and in the media hear reports about the benefits of it. My engine runs quieter, I get better mileage and its getting better all the time. It’s doing something for the environment and also the economy, the biofuels are created in the region. I’m an organic gardener and like to see people stay on the land if at all possible.
Scientists at the Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, Colorado have been studying the use of biodiesel in public buses. Senior engineer, Bob McCormick, says that consumers are becoming aware of the benefits of biodiesel and the industry is ramping up to meet the demand.
McCormick: The biodiesel industry seems to be growing really dramatically, the national biodiesel board says there’s 45 producers today and that in the relatively near term – 1 to 1 and a half years – the capacity to manufacture biodiesel will be well over 750 million gallons a year. Longer term, looking out 20 to 25 years, if government policies and the economy favor it, it looks like we could produce on the order of 10 billion gallons of biodiesel a year.
Coops and corporate growers alike are moving forward in the construction of major production facilities that will bring home grown fuel to a pump near you.
For more information about biodiesel and pump locations, please visit our website at gooddirtradio.org.
I’m Tom Bartels and I’m Tami Graham. Thanks for joining us on Good Dirt Radio…digging up good news…..for a change.
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