Banking biodiesel

Banking biodiesel
Victorville Daily Press - Victorville,CA,USA
By TATIANA PROPHET Staff Writer. VICTORVILLE — Diesel prices are finally soaring high enough for biodiesel to be a practical alternative for commercial use. ...

VICTORVILLE — Diesel prices are finally soaring high enough for biodiesel to be a practical alternative for commercial use.

Like many companies in the High Desert, Service Rock depends on trucking for its operations. Now they are experimenting with biodiesel — 35,000 gallons a month.

At its Palmdale plant, the cement mixers and loaders are running on biodiesel purchased from Darryl Evey, former diesel mechanic shop owner, Apple Valley planning commissioner and founder of High Desert Alternative Fuels.

Evey has balanced his concern for the environment with business sense. With his tractor trailer, Evey makes the six-hour drive to Coachella every few days to pick up a load. This month, he began turning a profit for the first time — with two customers buying in bulk.

Looking ahead to new regulations, Service Rock didn't want to wait till June 1, when Califor nia is mandating a new, ultra-low sulfur fuel called S15, which is costly to refine.

"We'll be paying $4 a gallon for fuel," said Bob Burmeister, Service Rock's president.

Bob Kelley, vice president of operations, said the company has been testing the fuel to make sure it agrees with their trucks. So far, he's been pleased.

"Frankly, it makes the most sense," said Kelley, whose company uses about 200,000 gallons a month for 200 highway trucks and 80 non-highway trucks. "You don't have to do anything to the car."

No conversion is necessary for use of biodiesel, said Evey. All that's needed is a diesel engine. That's because German inventor Rudolph Diesel originally designed his engine to run on peanut oil at the 1900 Paris exposition, according to biodiesel Web sites.

Biodiesel advocates like it because it burns cleaner than diesel. According to biodiesel.org, biodiesel is the first alternative fuel to have fully completed the health effects testing requirements of the Clean Air Act. The fuel greatly reduces unburned hydrocarbons, carbon monoxide and particulates and eliminates sulfur altogether.

Kelley and Burmeister are taking it slow: there are issues with older equipment, which Evey warned them about. Older engines have rubber components, which biodiesel tends to soften. It also tends to clean the sludge from storage tanks.

"You gotta stock up on filters," Burmeister said.

And it turns to gel at 32 degrees, although that can be eliminated with additives.

But for Kelley, the fuel is promising.

"There's a lot of pluses about it," Kelley said. "I'd like to convince everybody not to use it so there's enough for us."

According to the National Biodiesel Board, 150 million gallons of biodiesel are expected to be produced in 2006, but that's only a drop in the bucket compared to the 44.8 billion gallons of diesel produced last year.

There are arguments for consumers to use biodiesel as well. While ethanol is used as an alternative to gasoline, Evey says that when it comes to engines, the diesel has no equal.

"The diesel engine is the most efficient engine in the world," he said. "Better gas mileage, fuel economy, and they last longer and need less maintenance."

Image: http://www.vvdailypress.com/storypics2006/051906_bio.jpg

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