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<back | home Biodiesel Pump Opens Locally AgriFuels providing resources for cleaner air, less petroleum dependence, and general happiness by Katie Renz Fueling up is about to get a lot easier for San Luis Obispo’s biodiesel users. The county’s first biodiesel pump is anticipated to open mid-winter at J.B. Dewar, Inc. an independent fuel station on Prado Road. According to Ken Dewar, president of the company, the station will offer one hundred percent biodiesel as well as B20, a blend of twenty percent biodiesel and 80 percent petroleum diesel, and B5, a mix of five and 95 percent, respectfully. Jason Hoar, Preisdent of AgriFuels, is a master enthusiast behind creating a biodiesel fueling infrastructure on the Central Coast and, eventually, helping make biodiesel a standard fueling option around the globe. "What we are going to do is build a template here and then go to other distributors around the country," Hoar said, adding that expansion—from installing pumps domestically and abroad to building processing plants—is planned after they succeed at the local level. A significant part of that template is centered on education, starting on the supply side. As Dewar said, "We had felt there was a new business opportunity and a need for this product, but we didn’t know about it. [AgriFuels] brought us much more knowledge and information than we had already found on our own." And Hoar is happily working within the industrial fueling system to alleviate what he believes is one of this modern world’s biggest problems—petroleum dependence. "The beauty of what we’re doing is we’re working with existing petroleum distributors to teach them about how to sell the fuel and distribute it," he said, explaining that AgriFuels initially considered buying a truck to deliver tanks of biodiesel to compete with petroleum companies, but decided against it. "What we want to do is work with those people who are in power to help them help us to clean up the air and reduce our dependence on imported fuels," he said. Hoar also knows that bringing an awareness of this alternative fuel, one that is largely still a fringe movement, is essential to encouraging broad public demand. "People still ask a lot, ‘What is biodiesel?’," he said. "Most people don’t know that you can use plants to run a diesel engine. They think of diesels as gross, polluting vehicles, which, on petroleum, many of them are." But when running an engine on biodiesel, proponents argue, emissions are cleaner, an engine runs better and longer due to increased lubricity, and the nation’s petroleum dependence is lessened as the transition to a renew-able fuel economy gains strength. Biodiesel is made from a chemical process converting vegetable oil or animal fats, methanol, and sodium hydroxide into a useable fuel. It’s non-toxic and biodegradable, can be used pure or blended with petroleum diesel at any percentage, and can be used in existing diesel engine technology with only slight mechanical modifications (namely changing fuel filters, hoses, and injector pumps, which can be dam-aged because biodiesel is a solvent). Currently, according to Graham Noyes, Vice President of Sales for World Energy Alternatives, about 95 percent of manufactured biodiesel is soy-based, a result of soybean farmers virtually creating the industry by having ot tested over a decade ago when few folks knew what this curious fuel was. Fuel made from recycled fryer oil, or "yellow grease," Noyes said, is becoming a more significant part of the market, turning waste into a resource on an industrial level, something that green innovators have increasingly been doing in their garages. Hoar views offering biodiesel on a large scale as a necessary, and logi-cal, step for San Luis Obispo. "The air [here] is some of the cleanest in the country. And I think that because it’s still so clean, people want to keep it that way," he said. Tests conducted by Southwest Research Institute show that B100 emissions contain 67 percent fewer hydrocarbons and nearly half the carbon monoxide and particulate matter than do convention diesel emissions. Sulfur emissions are essentially eliminated, and biodiesel is the first and only alternative fuel to have 9663successfully passed both Tier I and Tier II Health Effects testing requirements of the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990 (petroleum diesel has never even undergone Tier II testing because, said Hoar, it is so obviously lethal). Though in some tests, nitrogen oxides—which contribute to the formation of smog--increase with B100, testing demonstrates that the overall smog forming potential is fi fty percent less because hydrocarbons—the other key ingre-dient in smog—are so dramatically reduced. If you’ve traveled behind a San Luis city dump truck recently, this list of statistics may resonate more in your lungs than just in your mind, for perhaps you observed a distinct absence of noxious black exhaust billowing from the tailpipe For the past two years, the city has been fi lling up all of its diesel maintenance fleets, as well as all of its diesel equipment, such as lawnmow-ers, tractors, and generators, with B20. Larry Tolson, Public Works Spokes-man, refl ected a common sentiment: though clean air and sustainability were certainly motivators, the switch—especially for fleets—is a question of cost. "The government made it so there were so many price incentives two years ago that we jumped on it," he said. San Luis’ maintenance fl eet is representative of a movement towards biodiesel across all levels of govern-ment, be it a result of incentives or legal mandates. In 1998, the Energy Policy Act was amended to allow gov-ernment fleets to meet up to half of their light duty alternative fueled vehicle (AFV) purchase requirements by using biodiesel rather than buying an AFV. The largest single purchaser of biodiesel in this country is, in fact, the U.S. military. The average driver, however, doesn’t have pocket change com-parable to the defense budget, and at an average cost of $3.00 per gallon, biodiesel, on a purely eco-nomic basis, isn’t competitive with conventional diesel. For example, Ted Rapley, lead mechanic for the San Luis Obispo Coastal School District, pointed to the "outrageous cost" of biodiesel as a signifi cant reason why it is not on the agenda as an option for safer school buses, even as schools around the country are converting their fleets. Noyes, of World Energy Alternatives, explained that biodiesel’s biggest challenge is the unrealistically low cost of diesel. "Competing against [conventional diesel] for a processed product that starts with something that costs something to produce, as a soy oil does, is difficult," he said. "There are a lot of subsidies and costs associated with petroleum that aren’t really refl ected in the cost [at the pump]. I think if more of those were reflected biodiesel would be much more on a parity status with it." People want biodiesel, though, regardless of an infant infrastructure and high prices. Noyes continued, "World Energy has seen the demand for biodiesel double every year for the past fi ve years. And this is a fuel that isn’t getting any favorable tax treatment, that’s requiring people to pay a premium." The solution, Noyes believes, to making biodiesel affordable, and increasing its accessibility to the av-erage consumer, lies in government action. "The big factor is going to be what both the state and federal governments decide to do as far as supporting biodiesel as an energy solution or not," he said. "In order to encourage alternative energy, we have to make it economically viable. That’s done on a policy level more than on anything else." At J.B. Dewar, Hoar anticipates biodiesel costing the average $3.00 per gallon, but hopes to be able to offer a lower price in the near future. "We’re going to try to work on lower margins to make less money but to push more gallons, and to have it balance itself that way," he said. Though J.B. Dewar is traditionally a commercial operation--serving mainly agricultural vehicles and fleets--rather than a public service station, Hoar is working towards serv-ing individual drivers by early spring. Fifty-five gallon drums of biodiesel are already available for home or business delivery. A pump isn’t the only resource Hoar and AgriFuels are providing driv-ers. Once their website is completed, users will have the ability to link with mechanics, auto parts, and biodiesel distributors based on one’s zip code and engine model, as well as be able to print out do-it-yourself directions to convert any model of diesel engine. Guidelines for certifying mechanics in engine conversion and developing a training class or interactive CD are all on the agenda, too. With a comprehensive website, new pump, and potential cadre of mechanics and growing number of biodie-sel enthusiasts, Hoar and AgriFuels are literally fueling the drive for a more sustainable San Luis. "It’s something I’ve been striving for a long time—just to make people happier," Hoar said, elaborating on his motivations behind opening the pump, and for his environ-mentalist worldview in general. "I mean, if we’re all happier, things will be a little bit easier." Further Resources: |