Fueling up with a friendlier blend

City turns to biodiesel for a greener alternative

Wednesday, Oct. 4, 2006

Click here to enlarge this photo Dan Gross⁄The Gazette Mark Scafide, project manger with the Gaithersburg Department of Public Works, fills the tank of a city truck with biodiesel. The city recently started using biodiesel, a blend of fuels that are more environmentally friendly than regular diesel.

In an effort to help clean up the area’s air quality, Gaithersburg switched last month to a biodiesel blend for its 98 diesel-guzzling vehicles, including trucks, street sweepers and industrial mowers.

The fastest growing alternative fuel source, biodiesel — which in this area is made primarily from soy beans — reduces carbon dioxide emissions and cuts down on harmful sulfur that contributes to greenhouse gases.

‘‘When it comes down to it, it’s better for engines and better for the environment,” said Jim Arnoult, director of Gaithersburg’s Department of Public Works.

At the department’s gas station off Rabbitt Road, workers use ordinary pumps to feed the fuel into city equipment.

But the liquid that splashes around the vehicles’ bellies — which looks and smells like regular diesel — is partially plant based, turning average soy bean deposits into a popular and cleaner fuel alternative.

Gaithersburg uses B20 biodiesel, made of 80 percent diesel and 20 percent vegetable oil, in its fleet.

In 2005, Gaithersburg’s vehicles sucked down 52,000 gallons of petroleum diesel, Arnoult said.

He estimates the city will now use 10,000 gallons less of regular diesel each year.

With hefty petroleum prices and a federal tax incentive to use the alternative fuel, biodiesel production in the United States is more than 30 times greater today than five years ago, according to the National Biodiesel Board, a trade association based in Jefferson City, Mo.

In 2005, the group reported that 75 million gallons of biodiesel were produced across the nation, most of it created by chemically removing fats from plant products like soy beans and discarded cooking oil.

Queen Anne’s County on the eastern shore, one of the largest suppliers of soy beans in the state, has switched to biodiesel blends, as well as Arlington and Caroline counties in Virginia, according to news reports.

Gaithersburg could be the first city in Maryland to introduce biodiesel for its entire vehicle fleet, which the city receives in 7,000-gallon supplies every six weeks from a Grasonville, Md., distributor, said Mark Scafide, project manager for Gaithersburg public works.

Right now, the price of biodiesel is right. The traditionally more expensive fuel is on par or a few cents cheaper per gallon than petroleum diesel, although prices continually fluctuate, Arnoult said.

Last year at this time, biodiesel was five to 10 percent higher, he added.

To switch to the blend, the city cleaned its 10,000-gallon ground storage tank and replaced filters, which cost a few thousand dollars, Arnoult said. Its fuel equipment and vehicle tanks are the same.

One downside of the product, the U.S. Energy Information Administration reports, is that biodiesel is more likely to gel during cold weather than regular diesel.

For the city’s next shipment in November, additives that reduce the cold flow property will be included in the fuel, Scafide said.

As Gaithersburg looks to go more ‘‘green” — touting its first energy efficient building recently and adding two hybrid cars to its fleet — biodiesel is the natural next step, Arnoult adds.

‘‘We’ve been considering it on and off for over a year,” Arnoult said. ‘‘We think it just made sense.”