DTE Energy converts 800 vehicles to biodiesel

In Michigan, DTE Energy announced that it will convert 800 trucks and service vehicles to biodiesel. The company did not specify the blend ratio, but sources believe that conversion will be to B20 based on the 15 percent emission reductions target that DTE specified. DTE’s biodiesel fuel is being supplied by Romulus-based RKA Petroleum.

The conversion would add to a lengthy list of recent conversions and approvals for B5, B20 and B100.

• John Deere has approved B100 for use in its PowerTech and PowerTech Plus Stage IIIa engines, and earlier designs. The company said that it was approving the use of biodiesel rather than cold pressed rapeseed oil, and that the approval was subject to proper handling and storage of fuels and use of a John Deere B100 additive.
• In Florida, the Central Florida bus system, Lynx, will convert its 290 buses and four support vehicles to B20 biodiesel, which it will blend at its own facility in Orange County.
• In Washington State, Tri-City & Olympia Railroad has established a subsidiary, Green Diesel, to make biodiesel for the railroad. The subsidiary has established a 1 Mgy research plant in Richland that will produce fuels for use on the 127-mile railroad that uses 500 gallons of fuel per week for the 100 cars it runs on the line.
• In Nevada, Q&D Construction will convert its heavy equipment to B20, following the conclusion of a successful pilot test which commenced in 2004.
• The University of Washington is converting its fleet from B5 to B20 effective February 2008. The University indicated that it plans to ultimately convert to B90.
• In Colorado, Blue Sun will supply its Fusion 20 biodiesel to the 45-truck Corporate Express fleet in Colorado and Kansas.
• In Arizona, Dole Fresh Vegetables has converted its harvesting equipment in B20 biodiesel. The company had been testing B20 since August in both farm equipment and its off-road vehicles.
• Safeway Stores announced last week that it is converting its entire nationwide fleet to B20 biodiesel, following a successful conversion of the company’s 79-truck Arizona fleet to B20 last August.
• In North Carolina, Chapel Hill converted 60 percent of its vehicles to alternative fuels with a goal of 100 percent conversion by 2012. The town most recently converted biodiesel trucks and E85-ready police cars.
• Burlington, NC converted to B10 biodiesel for its city vehicles after concluding a successful test of B5 which began in July. Burlington hopes to convert eventually to B20, but cited the need for a slow transition due to the cleaning effect of biodiesel which can clog fuel filters. The city saw fuel cost increases of 20 cents per gallon when the pilot program commenced, but prices have subsequently dropped and now provide a one-cent savings.
• In Oregon, the city of Cottage Grove is converting its city vehicle fleet to biodiesel, while earlier in the month five Pennsylvania school districts announced a switch to B20 biodiesel.
• New York’s Oneonta Public Transit siwtched to B20 for buses on all five of its bus routes.
• Fresh Direct will convert its fleet of 150 delivery trucks to B5 in February 2008.
• Montclair, NJ switched its 70-plus diesel-powered fleet and off-road equipment to B20 biodiesel late last year.
• In New Hampshire, Cranmore Mountain Resort has reported that its fleet of trucks, which operate on B20, have experienced no problems relating to the effect of cold on biodiesel, at temperatures as low as minus 20 Fahrenheit. Cranmore is one of two New Hampshire ski resports that have converted to biodiessel.
• Mount Sunapee Resort, converted its snow grooming and snow removal equipment to B20 biodiesel, and converted its hearing systems to B5.
• In Maryland, state highway officials said that they have converted snowplows to a B5 blend this season, and expect to convert their equipment to B20 in 2008-09.
• Monterey-Salinas Transport will commence making its own biodiesel, and will convert to B20. MST will use mustard seed, grown as a cover crop, as a feedstock, and will test production from a 30-acre plot where two varieties of mustard seed will be tested with barley as a control crop, on lands donated for the study by San Bernabe Vineyards.

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