My instincts say no, mainly because it seems as though they've invested too much in to it to pull the plug, but who knows? Other than regular diesel maybe they'll start using CNG, I've heard its much cheaper comparatively.
LTD to stop using biodiesel, citing price, performance
BY MATT COOPER
The Register-Guard
Published: July 19, 2008 12:00AM
Lane Transit District said Friday that it will stop running biodiesel, calling the alternative fuel expensive and questionable in performance during a yearlong test in 10 buses.
The move was the latest bit of bad news for an emerging alternative fuel industry defending itself amid rising gas prices and questions about the “green” fuel’s environmental impacts.
The transit district, which began testing biodiesel in May 2007, found its cost was an average of 5 to 16 cents more per gallon than conventional diesel. Given LTD goes through 1 million gallons of fuel annually, the extra cost adds up quickly, officials said: An increase of a penny adds $10,000 to fuel costs, for example.
The district blames the rising cost of conventional gas for plans to cut service substantially later this year. It can ill afford to experiment with even pricier alternative fuels at riders’ expense, spokesman Andy Vobora said.
“We want to have practices that are sustainable — in the sense they’re economically sustainable as well as environmentally,” he added.
Biodiesel, commonly made from oil-producing plants or cooking-oil waste, can be blended with conventional diesel in different ratios to run in diesel engines.
Ian Hill, co-founder of Oregon-based SeQuential Biofuels, which provided biodiesel for the bus district, said cost concerns are legitimate but that many large municipalities and transit organizations in Portland, Salem and Vancouver, Wash., continue to see the value of the alternative fuel.
As high as the price of conventional gas such as diesel has been lately, the price of biodiesel has been higher. That’s challenged SeQuential’s ability to retain customers.
“You are buying a more valuable product than the petroleum diesel you’re replacing,” Hill said. “We’re certainly working as hard as we can to bring down the cost of biodiesel, but we’re being impacted like everybody else by a weak dollar and a strong export market.”
Hill distinguished SeQuential’s biodiesel — which comes primarily from cooking-oil waste, he said — from biodiesel that comes from crops such as soybeans. The latter type has been blamed for massive deforestation and a rush to serve fuel demand at the expense of food supplies.
The district said buses running biodiesel lost about 2 percent in miles per gallon while encountering fuel-filter plugging problems.
But Hill said biodiesel is comparable to today’s diesel in energy, and that one-time clogging issues are normal because biodiesel is a solvent.
“We expect to see some fuel-system cleansing, which means there can be filter-clogging right up front,” he added. “We recommend changing fuel filters immediately (upon switching to biodiesel) and we don’t see that as a recurring issue.”
There continues to be debate about biodiesel emissions, as well.
Research suggests that biodiesel blends are better than diesel in releasing fewer harmful particulates and global-warming agents, but that the release of nitrous oxide is higher, said Kevin Downing, of the state Department of Environmental Quality.
The latter is a contributor to smog, which is less of a concern in Oregon than in areas such as Southern California, he added.
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