http://www.denverpost.com/Stories/0,1002,53%257E385631,00.html Denver Post.com -
Diesel never smelled like this Biodiesel fuel nontoxic, veggie By Erin Emery Denver Post Southern Colorado Bureau Thursday, February 07, 2002 - PETERSON AIR FORCE BASE - A ferry from San Francisco to Alcatraz, U.S. Postal Service trucks in Manhattan and noncombat vehicles at Peterson Air Force Base are all powered by it. Biodiesel. It is a renewable, nontoxic diesel fuel that is made from vegetable products such as soybean oil and canola oil, along with animal fats and even recycled cooking grease from the neighborhood McDonald's. "It smells like your kitchen rather than your garage." said Gene Gebolys, president of World Energy Alternatives, the nation's largest biodiesel provider. Snowplows, pickup trucks and refueling vehicles that transport jet fuel to airplanes on the flight line at Peterson have since October been using a product called B-20, which is 20 percent biodiesel and 80 percent diesel. "It's been a success for us so far," said Master Sgt. Mark Trolio, chief fuels operator for Air Force Space Command. "Our vehicles are smoking less, and they are starting smoothly." Biodiesel doesn't have to be mixed with regular diesel for top performance, advocates say, but uncut biodiesel is mostly used in warmer climates. Biodiesel is the fastest-growing alternative energy in the United States. More than 150 public and private commercial fleets across the United States are using it because it has tremendous environmental benefits, it reduces the nation's reliance on foreign oil and vehicles don't have to be retrofitted for it. According to research commissioned by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, operated by the U.S. Department of Energy, vehicles that burn biodiesel have cleaner emissions. In fact, biodiesel reduces cancer risk over diesel vehicle emissions by as much as 94 percent for 100 percent biodiesel and 27 percent with B-20. It's been called everything from "veggie power" to the "green" fuel for its environmental advantages, but bio-diesel is attracting a lot of attention primarily because companies don't have to spend money to retrofit their fleets, and vehicle performance doesn't suffer. "This is the easiest (alternative fuel) you can go to," Trolio said. "You can convert to biodiesel by emptying the fuel tank. All you have to do is make sure the tank is completely empty. It's a program that is so simple to get into. It's a wave, and we're ahead of that wave. Clean air - that's the biggest benefit to me. Who would not like cleaner air?" The drawback to biodiesel: It costs about 12 cents to 15 cents more a gallon than fossil fuels. Nevertheless, six U.S. cities already have biodiesel for sale at the pump, though most biodiesel is sold to fleets operated by companies or governments. The technology has been around since 1895, when Rudolf Diesel used vegetable oil to power an engine. It has only been in the last decade that economic and agricultural conditions have ignited interest in biodiesel, which could displace 2 percent of the nation's petroleum at full production capacity, Gebolys said. As a response to mad-cow disease in Europe, farmers discontinued the practice of feeding animal content back to animals. When cattle were allowed to revert to vegetarianism, there was an increased demand for soybeans but not soybean oil, creating a glut of oil and a plunge in vegetable oil prices. The government offers subsidies to people who buy biodiesel to offset losses to farmers. "Biodiesel is not just for agriculture anymore," Gebolys said. "About once every 10 years, we get a strong reminder of just how dependent we are on foreign oil and why we shouldn't be. We need to find new uses for our agricultural oil excess, and we need to find new sources of domestic clean energy. So it seems pretty clear to us that we can play a pretty important role." All contents Copyright 2002 The Denver Post or other copyright holders. ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ---------------------~--> Get your FREE credit report with a FREE CreditCheck Monitoring Service trial http://us.click.yahoo.com/ACHqaB/bQ8CAA/ySSFAA/FGYolB/TM ---------------------------------------------------------------------~-> Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Please do NOT send "unsubscribe" messages to the list address. To unsubscribe, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
