Austin Biodiesel Conference

Austin Biodiesel Conference
KXAN-TV - Austin,TX,USA
... Believe it or not, the Austin Biodiesel Conference is sold out. ... He is helping some investors set up a biodiesel plant setup in South America. ...


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Energy is in the news. Experts in Houston said that city's air pollution is toxic enough to cause death from cancer.

In Hoover, Alabama, President Bush pushed for the continued development of alternative fuels.

Here in Austin, hundreds of people showed up at a conference to do just that.

(The following is a transcript of Swift's story.)

Believe it or not, the Austin Biodiesel Conference is sold out. People from every corner of that particular alternative fuel industry are on an energetic roll here. Let's go inside.

Crowd noise.

Looking out at the large crowd gathered for lunch here today, I found myself thinking: they're here to talk to each other about biodiesel? Who are all these people, and where did they come from?

Vendor says: "We would have the tanks fabricated in Oregan, and then we would ship them down there. That's what we do for Japan."

Luis San Miguel is a Columbian native who runs a consulting in Houston. He is helping some investors set up a biodiesel plant setup in South America.

Miguel says: "I was surprised to see, because this is a little bit new to me that in the states, really the evolution of biodiesel is way, way, way behind other countries in Europe. So I guess everybody now is in kinda a gold rush type of approach for biodiesel."

"I have no idea. and he didn't have an explanation either.

Closer to home, the army of biodiesel troops on hand for the conference includes Jeff Plowman, president of an Austin company that sells biodiesel fuel.

Austin Biofuels President Jeff Plowman said: "Diesel engines are efficient. They're quiet, and they're not dirty. They're cleaner than gasoline vehicles, especially when they're running on biodiesel."
Swift asked: "Did you bring your keys with you?"
Plowman says: "Yeah, I've got my keys."
Swift says: "Let's see how quiet your vehicle is."
Plowman says: "Well, it's a 7.3 liter diesel truck, so we'll see how quiet it actually is."

Engine starts.

Plowman says: "Yes, it does run on diesel and you can smell the difference, right?"
Swift says: "Yeah, and I saw a little puff of smoke when you first started up."
Plowman asked: "But it was white smoke, wasn't it?"
Swift says: "Yeah, yeah, white-ish."
Plowman says: "White-ish, that's the difference. Biodiesel decreases particulate emissions significantly over petroleum diesel."

Plowman acknowledges that less than two percent of passenger vehicles in this country run on diesel fuel, of any type. But he cites federal predictions that number will quickly grow to as much as 10 percent.

Meanwhile, if you already have a diesel vehicle, Plowman's company will sell you a pollution reducing biodiesel blend at some 33 signature Austin stores here in the Capital City.

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