Fueling A Trend
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Fueling a trend: Eugene companies offer biodiesel, a soybean oil-petroleum blend By ROSEMARY CAMOZZI
WHEN DR. RUDOLF DIESEL demonstrated his new "diesel" engine at the World Exhibition in Paris, it was powered by peanut oil. A century later, the fuel is returning to its crop-based roots. Biodiesel, made from vegetable oil or animal tallow, is the fastest growing alternative fuel in the country, according to the National Biodiesel Board, a nonprofit trade group. Its proponents are passionate about its potential to minimize pollution, cut dependence on foreign oil and stimulate the American economy.
These days, you can pull up to a pump in Eugene and fill your tank with a mix of 20 percent soy-based biodiesel and 80 percent petroleum diesel, thanks to an alliance between a local petroleum distributor and a newly formed marketing company committed to promoting domestically produced fuels made from renewable materials. Tyree Oil Inc. and SeQuential Biofuels LLC have banded together to promote and distribute throughout most of Oregon both the 20 percent biodiesel mix, called B20, and pure biodiesel. Tyree has only one pump dispensing the fuel - in Eugene - but customers in much of Western Oregon can order the product in bulk. "We were lucky to find a petroleum distributor that had the infrastructure set up and was receptive to doing something like this," says Ian Hill, one of SeQuential's three owners. "They were willing to get in on the ground floor and take a little bit of a risk." Tyree, which buys the fuel from national supplier World Energy Alternatives, feels equally fortunate, sales manager Tim Reid says. His company was already talking to World Energy about distributing the product when it met up with SeQuential. The big reason biodiesel remains obscure is its price - 30 to 40 cents more per gallon than petroleum diesel. "We couldn't find anything negative about it except the price," Reid says. "Then we ran into these guys (from SeQuential), and they pushed us Tyree is selling the B20 fuel for $1.79 to $1.89 a gallon. The pure 100 percent biofuel - B100 - is sold only in bulk, and costs $2.49 a gallon for a 55-gallon drum and less per gallon for larger amounts. By contrast, petroleum diesel retails for about $1.50 at the pump. The B20 and B100 can be used in standard diesel engines without any retrofitting. So far, B20 is getting a warm reception from some government agencies and consumers. The city of Eugene this month began testing B20 in some of its fleet, says Kandy Hanes, fleet services clerk for the city. "If all goes well, we'll start using it in January," she says. The city could run biodiesel in 185 diesel rigs, using about 205,000 gallons annually.
Howard Stein, a Eugene family practice doctor, uses pure biodiesel in his Volkswagen car. "We decided we're going to do it full speed ahead," Stein said. "I'm willing to pay a little more for a gallon of fuel because it's the right thing to do. Somebody has to get it started. "This is where the country has to go to get off petroleum dependency," Stein added. "It keeps industry home, and it's environmentally sound." Sooty exhaust Diesel engines are highly regarded for their longevity, reliability, power and fuel economy. But diesel fuel, usually made entirely from petroleum, has lately gained a reputation as black as its telltale smelly, sooty exhaust. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recently included diesel particulates in an elite group of pollutants that pose the greatest relative risk for inducing human illness, especially lung cancer and respiratory disease. Kevin Downing, an air quality planner with the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality, says that it's easy to suffer acute exposure to pollution when working around engines running on petroleum diesel. In contrast, biodiesel contains only traces of sulfur and emits no sulfate particulates. It also burns cleaner, reducing carbon particulate emissions. Plus, biodiesel doesn't increase the level of carbon compounds to the atmosphere. The carbon in biodiesel comes from plants that have absorbed that carbon from the atmosphere. By contrast, petroleum diesel takes carbon stored underground as oil and releases it into the atmosphere during combustion, increasing the level of carbon in the atmosphere, a process that many scientists believe is contributing to global warming. Biodiesel's only downside is a slight increase in nitrogen oxide emissions compared to petroleum diesel. Biodiesel is safe to use and spills pose no environmental problem. The fuel is made by removing the glycerin from vegetable oil or animal fats. It biodegrades more rapidly than sugar and is much less toxic than table salt. The glycerin left over from its manufacture can be sold for other uses. "The efficiency scale is no waste at all," SeQuential's Hill says. Fueling a trend National production of biodiesel jumped from 500,000 gallons in 1999 to between 10 million and 15 million gallons in 2001, according to the National Biodiesel Board. More than 200 fleets nationwide are using it, including school districts, public utilities, federal and state agencies, public transit systems, and national parks. In the Pacific Northwest, Clark County, Wash., and Hood and Multnomah counties in Oregon have embraced the alternative. In very cold climates, it can be hard to start an engine with pure biodiesel. But blending biodiesel with petroleum diesel solves that problem. Proponents say the fuel offers higher performance, better combustion and a smoother idle than petrodiesel. "It's a noticeable difference," says Tyree's Reid, who uses the blended fuel in his company pickup. "I'll vouch for that." "Everything runs like a top," agrees Walt Bernard, owner of Ruby and Amber's Organic Oasis, a 35-acre organic farm in Dorena, southeast of Cottage Grove. "We've had no problems at all." Bernard uses B20 in his delivery truck and pure biodiesel in his tractor, where the stack blows exhaust at face level. "My horses like the smell of it," he adds. "They're always over there sticking their noses" in the biodiesel barrels. Experts note that after switching a vehicle to biodiesel, it is best to change the engine filters because biodiesel dissolves deposits and sludge left by petroleum inside the tank. Also, biodiesel may degrade gaskets and rubber hoses more quickly than petroleum diesel. Tax relief Biodiesel backers are busy trying to get tax help for consumers. If an energy bill now in the U.S. Senate becomes law, a federal fuel excise tax exemption of one penny per 1 percent of biodiesel in each gallon sold would bring the price down close to that of petrodiesel. In Oregon, new users can take advantage of the Business Energy Tax Credit Program, which allows a 35 percent tax credit for the cost of installing a storage tank or dispensing facility for any alternative fuel. Biodiesel isn't the only way to cut down on diesel pollution, however. Oregon offers incentives to truck owners who retrofit diesel engines with catalytic converters that superheat the diesel exhaust fumes. In the short run, says DEQ's Downing, that's a faster way to reduce pollution, as the converters cut harmful emissions by 95 percent, versus 15-20 percent if using B20. But, he says, biodiesel is still compelling because of the economic stimulus provided by growing fuel crops domestically. "We think biofuels offer a great advantage," says Dan Roberson, director of fleet services for the city of Spokane. "They can clean up the environment, take a chunk out of dependence on foreign oil, and give the farmers something to grow. It's a win-win situation for us." Spokane tried out biodiesel in 30 buses a couple of years ago, Roberson says. "The drivers felt they had more power, and everybody loved the smell," he says. "It was a great success." There's now more talk of making the switch if the fuel can be produced in the Spokane area. LTD, which is investing in hybrid electric vehicles, is taking a cautious approach to biodiesel. "We would want to test it and do a comparison analysis," says Ron Berkshire, director of maintenance. A big oil bill For SeQuential's Hill and his partners, Josh and Tomas Endicott, the venture into biodiesel is a gamble. The three haven't invested much cash in marketing the fuel, but they've invested plenty of time meeting with fleet owners and doing other marketing. All three rely on other work for their income. Under their deal with Tyree, they get sales commissions on the biodiesel sold here. Hill and the Endicott brothers say ethics drive them as much as any profit motive. The United States has spent about $12 trillion importing crude oil since 1973, according to the Department of Energy. "Half the price of petroleum fuel goes to the crude oil supplier," says Josh Endicott, 28. "That's a huge amount of money taken out of the domestic economy." Making biodiesel in the Midwest helps the U.S. economy and offers farmers a market for soybeans, a highly subsidized crop that fetches a low price on the commodities market. But SeQuential would like to see biodiesel manufactured closer to home. Hill, 28, a student in environmental science at the University of Oregon, and Tomas Endicott, 30, who holds a bachelor's degree in environmental sustainability from Cornell University and a master's degree in community and regional planning from the UO, started out by making biodiesel in their own garage. That proved impractical, so they turned their attention to promoting the fuel. Willamette Valley nights are too cool for growing soybeans, so the entrepreneurs hoped to interest local farmers in growing rapeseed, which is used for making biodiesel in Europe. But that's not an option here, says Mark Mellbye of the Oregon State University Extension Service. It's illegal to let rapeseed go to flower in the valley because it might crossbreed with valuable seed crops. But rapeseed would be a great rotation crop for wheat farmers in Eastern Oregon, he says. Hill says SeQuential has been talking with farmers in Pendleton. "If you look at wheat growers in Eastern Oregon, their percentage of the profit made in a box of Wheaties is small. They grow the wheat, harvest it, and sell it." If the farmers grew rapeseed, he says, they could develop co-ops to press the seed for oil and meal. The biggest question remains whether fleet managers will be willing to switch to a higher-priced fuel, Tyree's Reid says. "Everybody's watching their money," he says, "But we just need to work through that. There's enough value added that hopefully the price will be secondary." Rosemary Camozzi is a Eugene-based free-lance writer. SeQuential Biofuels LLC
Tyree Oil Inc.
Biodiesel data sources
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