Connecticut town drops biodiesel conversion: 10 percent price premium too expensive

In Connecticut, the town of Greenwich has cancelled a plan to convert 150 vehicles to biodiesel fuels, because the town said it could not afford the 10 percent price premium. “Everyone was very supportive of biodiesel, it turned out to be way too expensive,” town manager Betty Linck told the Stamford Advocate. “We want to go green, but the economics aren’t there.”

Biodiesel conversions and mandates background

• Little Rock, AR will convert its diesel vehicles to a B10 blend in fall and winter and a B20 blend in spring and summer.
• Sun Tran announced a plan to acquire 119 B100 biodiesel buses over the next five years. The Arizona transit company currently runs 56 percent of its fleet on biodiesel and the remainder on compressed natural gas.
• Ukrop’s Super Markets, construction company Danchanko and Con Edison announced conversions to biodiesel. Ukrop’s said that it was recycling waste oil from chicken-frying at 11 of its stores to power its fleet of 60 vehicles.  Danchanko is microbrewing its own biodiesel from locally collected waste oil.  Con Ed said it had introduced B20 to its fleet and expects to reduce conventional diesel consumption by 400,000 gallons.
• In Washington state, the Eastern Washington Gateway Railroad will conduct a three-month test of biodiesel for its 109-mile rail line between Cheney and Coulee City. The line is used for grain harvest transporatation. Soy, canola oil, grease, soy and other undisclosed feedstocks will be tested.
• Case Construction Equipment said that it was approving B20 biodiesel in more than 85 percent of its construction equipment. The company had approved B5 blends in 2006.
• The American Society of Testing and Materials subcommittee on biodiesel standards approved new standards for B6 to B20 blends, which will prompt more vehicle manufacturers to approve B20.
• In Louisiana, the Regional Transit Authority said that it would purchase 39 new vehicles that would use a biodiesel blend. The organization did not issue a timeline on deployment of the buses, nor a blend ration, but RTA said in a statement that its focus in making the change was a desire to voluntarily reduce pollution, and that the RTA did not intend to raise fares.
• 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. Last November, the company announced that its official policy on biodiesel was that B5 blends were preferred, but that B20 was acceptable if used in conjunction with an approved fuel conditioner.
• 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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