Biofuel outlet nears opening

Biofuel outlet nears opening
By Susan Palmer
The Register-Guard
August 21, 2006

	Click to Expand: Employees of Habitats, Inc. plant succulents on the roof of the SeQuential Biofuels outlet station, which is set to open within the next couple of weeks and will sell alternative fuels. The building has many energy-efficient features, including solar panels and windows that capture winter light and heat. Photo: Wayne Eastburn The Register-Guard

It's been a long time coming - four years of advance work, two years of cleanup and construction - but Eugene's first alternative fuel retail station will open for business sometime in the next couple of weeks.

SeQuential Biofuels, a Eugene-born company that kick-started the sale and production of biodiesel in Oregon, will be selling ethanol and biodiesel blends at a station just off Interstate 5. The station includes a convenience market that will offer specialty coffees and bakery products from Eugene's Sweet Life Patisserie.

The station may be a first in Oregon, said Diana Enright, communications manager at the Department of Energy. While there are wholesale pumps offering biofuels, retail options are scarce for ordinary consumers, she said.

"What's really been the missing component for biofuels is the retail infrastructure," Enright said.

The only pump Enright knows of that supplies E85, the ethanol-gasoline blend for GM and Ford flex-fuel vehicles, is the one in Salem for the state's own fleet.

The Department of Energy helped SeQuential with two loans, one for this facility and one for its production plant in Salem, which processes spent vegetable oil from Oregon snack manufacturer Kettle Chips into the fuel mixes that feed diesel engines.

"The department's mission is to provide incentives for renewable energy and conservation," Enright said.

SeQuential got its start in a Eugene garage - the dream of friends Ian Hill and Thomas Endicott, who began by manufacturing their own biodiesel from vegetable oil from area restaurants. Their enterprise has grown since then to include 26 fuel outlets in Oregon, mostly along the I-5 corridor. Last year, they sold 3 million gallons of biodiesel.

The Eugene station will offer something for almost every kind of vehicle. Ethanol is a renewable fuel processed from crops such as corn and sugarcane. Biodiesel can be made either from virgin vegetable oil, such as soybean or canola oil, or the used cooking oil disposed of by restaurants.

While Eugene biodiesel fans have been able to buy the product from SeQuential here for the past couple of years, they were only able to do so during limited hours and directly off a truck, Hill said.

The company built its environmentally friendly outlet on the site of an old gas station that had left a polluted brownfield behind. With help from an Environmental Protection Agency grant, SeQuential cleaned up the site and constructed a station with a lighter footprint.

"We need to be a different kind of fuel company," Hill said.

The canopies sheltering the fuel pumps are solar panels that will provide 30 to 50 percent of the station's electrical power.

The convenience store is angled south to capture winter light and heat through clerestory windows. During the summer, low louvers will allow evening air to cool the building, reducing the need for air conditioning.

The roof is planted with hardy sedum in an effort to control stormwater runoff, and ditches called bioswales run along the west and south edges of the property. They'll also hold stormwater and trap any pollutants washing off the site. Microbes in the ground will naturally break down any hydro- carbons.

"It's like a big sponge," Hill said.

The extra effort to control run-off was important to SeQuential because the station is just 1,000 feet from the Willamette River, Hill said.

The energy-efficient building cost about 25 to 35 percent more on the front end to build but is expected to save SeQuential money over the long term. The company will receive tax breaks for some of their efforts.

Susan Hill, an architect with a Kentucky firm and Ian Hill's mother, designed the project with help from landscape designer Sarah Whitney at Habitats, Inc. in Eugene.

With gasoline prices soaring in the past year, biofuels have suddenly become competitive, Hill said. "Biodiesel was cheaper than petroleum diesel eight times this year," he said.

Hill expects that state-owned flex fuel cars will fill up at the SeQuential station, but he hopes that at least three-quarters of their business will come from private consumers. Sen. Ron Wyden will be on hand Wednesday at a dedication ceremony for the new facility. A public celebration will be held Sept. 2.

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