[Biodiesel News] Biodiesel celebrates 10-plus years at Yellowstone National Park

Biodiesel celebrates 10-plus years at Yellowstone National Park
Biodiesel Magazine - Grand Forks,ND,USA
... Clean Cities Workshop in the Grand Teton National Park’s Moran Junction in Moran, Wyo., gave recognition to more than 10 successful years of biodiesel use in ...

On Sept. 12, the United Soybean Board (USB), in conjunction with the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Central Regional Clean Cities Workshop in the Grand Teton National Park’s Moran Junction in Moran, Wyo., gave recognition to more than 10 successful years of biodiesel use in the U.S. national parks system.

The workshop provided a venue whereby those interested could gain more information on the benefits and the challenges associated with a decade’s worth of biodiesel use. Guest panelists featured USB Director Chuck Myers, Yellowstone National Park Environmental Manager Jim Evanoff and Clean Cities Projects Manager Ernie Oakes.

Each panelist made opening statements prior to fielding questions by media and those in attendance. Myers spoke to the environmental benefits of burning biodiesel and thanked the U.S. DOE for its continued support for biodiesel. “A little over 10 years ago, a soybean check-off-funded study established important standards for testing soy biodiesel to ensure quality,” Myers said. “About the same time, Yellowstone became the first national park to begin using biodiesel in diesel engines.”

He said this milestone more than 10 years ago was important because it demonstrated to parks, federal departments and agencies that biodiesel could be used successfully in daily operations. It also illuminated the importance of working closely with qualified distributors and retailers to more fully advance biodiesel’s positioning in the mainstream. “And it confirmed that biodiesel can be used successfully in one of the harshest, all-weather climates in the United States,” Myers said. When cold weather comes around, Yellowstone lowers its blend, incorporates an additive, and when the temps drop below zero, staff members plug the vehicles in, or park them indoors.

Yellowstone National Park was the first national park established in the world. “With that being said, we feel an obligation to be first at doing the right thing environmentally, and as a result we have undertaken a whole cadre of initiatives,” Evanoff said. “One of them, and one of the most successful, has been the introduction of biodiesel and biodegradable fuels in Yellowstone National Park.”

He said there are now five public biodiesel pumps in the greater Yellowstone area and 23 national parks, in addition to many different federal agencies and departments, which have latched onto biodiesel. “We’ve reduced by 500 tons the amount of carbon dioxide going into the atmosphere annually,” Evanoff said, referring only to Yellowstone’s use of biodiesel blends in its entire fleet of diesel applications. The average blend through the year is 20 percent, which Evanoff said increases in the warmer months and decreases in the colder months. Yellowstone purchases about 30,000 gallons of B100 annually, which is blended down, he said.

Oakes said his goal through the Clean Cities initiative is to make sure at least half the parks in the United States and all of the cities he works with move to using biodiesel “in a major way,” he said. “This is our 10th year working on this type of a project, and I see great things coming in the future.”

Issues discussed at the workshop included the solvent-like properties of biodiesel, which Evanoff said he’d like parks and other fleets to consider if they are looking to convert to high-biodiesel blends or B100. Older vehicles could contain rust or scaling in its fuel system, which could become dislodged from exposure to B100 or high blends, clogging up fuel filters. “Be aware of that,” he said.

Evanoff also said they “dispelled the myth” that the appealing aroma of B100 emissions would attract grizzly bears—the park started its testing of biodiesel with B100 on one diesel vehicle more than 10 years ago. They tested the notion on bears in captivity, which proved to be false.

A question of biodiesel cost arose, to which Evanoff said the last big shipment Yellowstone purchased was about $1 per gallon cheaper compared to regular diesel fuel, which wasn’t always the case. “If you’re asking about overall cost savings to the park over the course of a year, we’re in the middle of extrapolating those numbers,” he said.

Additionally, Myers said the parks have adopted soy-based products to replace traditional petroleum-based lubricants and cleaners. “We have switched from over 140 somewhat toxic cleaning and janitorial products from the park to nine biobased products that come out of Nebraska,” Evanoff said.

One of the takeaway messages to those investigating the use of biodiesel in their own parks or fleets is securing a fuel supplier that is “on board” with the success of biodiesel, Evanoff said. The role of the USB in biodiesel’s success was also highlighted.

“Fifteen years ago it was just a group of soybean farmers talking about what to do with the excess soybean oil we had on the market,” Myers said. “Biodiesel was a possibility. … During that 15-year period, soybean farmers through their soybean check-offs have invested about $35 million to help develop biodiesel. We’re very happy to be where we are today and to be here talking about biodiesel being used in Yellowstone for these past 10 years.”

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Posted by Vince to Biodiesel News at 9/13/2006 11:00:00 AM