Biodiesel flowing at San Mateo County co-ops

Biodiesel flowing at San Mateo County co-ops

http://www.insidebayarea.com/localnews/ci_3956862

 

HALF MOON BAY — When Anne Ryckebusch needs to add biodiesel to her Volkswagen Golf, all she has to do is back it into her driveway. Her home is the headquarters of a small Coastside biodiesel co-op. At $3.40 a gallon, it's comparable to the going rate for diesel.

Half Moon Bay's single pump station, a 250-gallon tank of treated vegetable oil that sits in Ryckebusch's garage, is an offshoot of a larger biodiesel co-op in Pacifica with 30 members; it was created after the closure of Highway 1 at Devil's Slide cut Coastside commuters off from each other.

 

Another biodiesel co-op was quietly established at a Mercedes-Benz garage in San Mateo two months ago. It already has 50 members.

 

Were it not for the odd, sweet smell of cooking oil that Ryckebusch's car emits, no one would ever guess that it is run on fryer oil — recycled vegetable oil or animal fat collected from restaurants throughout the Bay Area, and converted into engine-friendly biodiesel by a local company through a simple glycerin extraction process. The resulting fuel can be used alone in any diesel engine without any further modification, or mixed in with regular diesel fuel.

 

The Bay Area's handful of co-ops and distributors are part of a growing grassroots movement of drivers who have embraced biodiesel as a low-emissions alternative to fossil fuels. Carbon monoxide emissions are 47 percent lower than regular diesel emissions, and total hydrocarbons are lowered by 67 percent.

 

Businesses, city governments, farmers and construction workers have also begun to use the fuel to cut costs.

 

"We went from eight to 30 members in the past year and a half," said Nancy Hall, an avid member of Pacifica's biodiesel co-op. "Now that our price is comparable (to regular diesel), people are looking at us differently. Suddenly, their ethics are affordable."

 

Since launching her biodiesel co-op in a garage in San Mateo, Janet Migliore said the side business has grown by word-of-mouth.

 

"I have hardcore people who won't use anything else," she said.

 

From now on, biodiesel users won't have to. In a testament to how widely available the fuel has become, Ryckebush will leave this week on a cross-country road trip to New Hampshire, stopping to fill up at biodiesel stations every 350 miles (her car gets 35-40 miles per gallon).

 

On a national scale, major biodiesel processors have proliferated alongside local grassroots co-ops. Newly built factories convert virgin soybean oil into biodiesel in an extraction process similar to that used for fryer oil; according to Biodiesel Magazine, 59 such plants presently exist in the U.S., mostly in the Midwest, where soybeans are grown. At least 65 more reportedly are in the works.

 

Between 2004 and 2005, American biodiesel production tripled to 75 million gallons, and is expected to double again in 2006 to 150 million gallons, according to the National Biodiesel Board, a trade organization.

 

At present, that's a fraction of the 55 to 60 billion gallons of petroleum U.S. consumers use every year. Nevertheless, the industry continues to attract major investors: In May, Chevron announced that it had taken a 22 percent share in a Texas-based biodiesel company, and that it plans to build what will be the nation's largest biodiesel plant. The company predicts it will eventually produce as much as 100 million gallons a year.

 

Several states also have taken steps to promote the use of biodiesel. Minnesota, Washington state and Louisiana all have passed laws mandating a minimum standard of blended use with diesel.

 

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger issued an executive order establishing a target of 20 percent renewable fuel use (ethanol and biodiesel) by 2010 and San Francisco will use a minimum 20 percent biodiesel blend in its city workers' fleet by 2007.

 

San Mateo County currently has no such requirement, but Pacifica has plans to run its city vehicles entirely on biodiesel it will generate at its own waste water plant by the end of the year.