The Great Lakes Zephyr - Wind Energy & Hydrogen Journal

Great post on Alt Power Digest at Yahoo! Groups:

Message: 1
Date: Sun, 18 Jan 2004 19:35:09 -0000
From: "Jim Carlson" jimcarlson622@yahoo.com
Subject: Gov. using biodiesel

Here is an artical that I thought some of you would find intresting.

Oil alternative: Restaurant grease

By CRAIG PITTMAN
AP Business Exchange

Last update: 17 January 2004

TAMPA -- As the United States tries to decrease its dependence on
foreign oil, some government agencies are turning to an unlikely
source: restaurant grease.

Yes, that's right: Every order of McDonald's fries strikes a blow
for energy independence. Go on, supersize it -- it's even good for
the environment.

You can smell the difference. Biodiesel fuel, which is made from
animal, plant or waste oil, produces far less air pollution than
regular diesel.

Biodiesel has slowly gained in popularity as an alternative fuel for
powering trucks, farm equipment, boats, anything with a diesel
engine. Now there is a move afoot in Congress in 2004 that could
push demand to a far higher level.

Pinellas County's dump trucks already burn biodiesel, as do
firetrucks on Sanibel Island and military vehicles at Eglin Air
Force Base in the Panhandle. In November, the state Department of
Environmental Protection jumped on the biodiesel bandwagon, with
five field vehicles used to tow tractors and other maintenance
equipment over the rugged terrain of the 110-mile Cross Florida
Greenway.

All these government agencies buy their biodiesel from Ward Oil Co.,
a 58-year-old family-owned fuel distributorship that sits on a dead-
end street behind the wholesale fruit and vegetable markets along
Hillsborough Avenue in Tampa. Ward gets its biodiesel from a company
that collects grease trap residue and refines it into fuel.

A spokeswoman for the National Biodiesel Board calls Ward
Oil "pioneers." Ward Oil's general manager, Aaron Evenson, prefers a
different title. A sign on the door to his office declares him to
be "Bio-Man, ridding the world of fuel toxins one company at a time."

Evenson is an enthusiastic salesman for the product, ticking off its
many advantages: It yields more energy than regular diesel (280
percent more, according to the U.S. Department of Energy) while
producing less exhaust emissions (47 percent less, says the
government).

It lubricates the engine's parts even while it's burning, which
helps extend the life of the engine. Yet biodiesel is less
combustible than petroleum diesel, making it as harmless as table
salt and as biodegradable as sugar.

A vial of the stuff is as clear as water. And then there's the smell.

"A lot of people state that when they smell biodiesel burn, it
smells like french fries or fried chicken," Evenson said. "I have to
say that if my chicken smelled like that, I wouldn't eat it. But it
has got a sweet smell to it."

That sure beats the usual throat-clogging, tear-inducing cloud of
smoke that trails behind most diesel-powered buses and trucks, he
said.

In a way, biodiesel is nothing new. When Rudolf Diesel invented the
first diesel engine in 1895, he fueled it with peanut oil. But a
petroleum-based diesel fuel turned out to be much cheaper to produce.

Then, in 1992, Congress mandated that all state and federal agencies
and public utilities should begin using a certain percentage of
alternative fuels. In 1998, the law was amended to include biodiesel.

Biodiesel's biggest advantage over other alternative fuels is that
regular diesel engines can burn biodiesel without any retrofitting.
So for plenty of government fleet managers, the decision to switch
to biodiesel was an easy one to make.

Ward Oil is not just a distributor -- it's a customer too. All nine
of its fuel trucks run on a blend of biodiesel and regular diesel,
Evenson said.

Despite Evenson's enthusiasm, a note of frustration creeps into his
voice when he talks about his efforts to persuade municipal bus
systems and other local agencies to make the switch. The problem is
always the same: the price. Biodiesel generally costs about 7 cents
per gallon more than regular diesel.

But that may change this year. The energy bill that Congress came
within two votes of passing in November contained a provision that
would trim the federal excise tax on biodiesel fuel. That could cut
the cost to consumers by up to 20 cents a gallon, said Jenna Higgins
of the National Biodiesel Board.

The energy bill ran into trouble over the $32 billion in tax breaks
and subsidies to the oil, gas, coal and nuclear industries it
contains, as well as a provision giving liability protection to
makers of a gasoline additive, MTBE, that has been shown to
contaminate drinking water. But the Bush administration, which
pushed the bill as a top priority, has pledged to bring it back up
this month in hopes of passing it.

If the final version contains that biodiesel tax cut, it could lead
to a lot more buses and trucks trailing the scent of frying chicken.

With the price lowered, "then there would be no reason not to use
it," Higgins said. "Once the price differential is gone, we expect
the demand to go through the roof."

Pittman writes for the St. Petersburg Times.

How about that?

Jim Carlson

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