Pumped up about cleaner fuel
More drivers are learning about alternative biodiesel
Biodiesel is all around us -- in our ferries, buses, garbage trucks, passenger cars, tractors, Army trucks, sailboats and more -- yet surveys show that only one in four people knows about this alternative, non-toxic fuel made from vegetable oil.
But biodiesel is poised for liftoff, and more people are discovering its benefits. About 30 million gallons of biodiesel was produced and used in the United States last year -- a sixfold increase in just five years.
The fuel runs in diesel engines but emits 78 percent less carbon dioxide, nearly 50 percent fewer particulates and 80 percent to 90 percent less of compounds linked to cancer than diesel, and fewer greenhouse gases than gasoline. (Engines using it do emit more nitrogen oxide, a smog-forming component.)
For the first time, an American company has made a car -- the 2005 Jeep Liberty -- designed to run on a 5 percent blend of biodiesel (B5). John Deere said it will start shipping all of its tractors and combines to customers filled with B2, a 2 percent biodiesel blend.
Country singer Willie Nelson, who uses biodiesel in his tour buses, recently announced a new company to make and sell "BioWillie" fuel to truck stops across the nation.
Even President Bush has weighed in, with a simple "I like biodiesel," while on the campaign trail in Iowa.
Five years ago, biodiesel was virtually unused in Washington -- this year more than a million gallons will be burned.
The wholesaler that imports nearly all of the state's biodiesel, Pacific Northwest Energy Co. and SC Fuels in Tacoma, began selling biodiesel in January 2004. Now they're bringing in more than 1.5 million gallons of pure biodiesel, B100, a year.
"Washington is probably one of the largest users in the country," said Vince "biovinny" McBroom, the commercial sales manager. "We're at least in the top five, if not the top two."
Though biodiesel isn't currently made in Washington, that's about to change. Experts say the state could produce and refine 5 million to 8 million gallons within five years.
Continue reading this story from the Seattle P-I:
Pumped up about cleaner fuel
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