Biodiesel
fuel goes on sale here
March 24, 2005
By
Ezra Blair
The Vineyard
Conservation Society (VCS) and R. M. Packer Company have combined
to introduce biodiesel fuel to operators of diesel powered vehicles
and heavy equipment.
The 20 percent blended fuel is on sale at the Tisbury Shell Station
on Beach Road and at DeBettencourt’s in Oak Bluffs. The Vineyard
is only the second community in Massachusetts to retail the environmentally
friendly diesel substitute, according to Ralph M. Packer Jr.
Any diesel engine, including marine diesels and farm equipment,
can use the fuel, which is a mix of soy bean oil and regular diesel
fuel. Cold weather operation requires the oil-diesel fuel mixture,
but in warm weather straight biodiesel may be used.
Fuel choices include 100 percent biodiesel (pure vegetable oil)
or the 20 percent biodiesel mix that is 20 percent vegetable oil
and 80 percent low-sulfur diesel. In either case, it is less polluting
than straight diesel because it is sulfur-free, low in hydrocarbons
and free of benzene and other volatile aromatics considered to be
carcinogenic.
Mr. Packer said biodiesel is widely accepted in industry, and the
admixture of vegetable oil appears to improve the pollution characteristics
of the low-sulfur diesel portion of the concoction. Biodiesel will
be used by the Steamship Authority in its buses and by NSTAR in
its trucks.
Mr. Packer said that preparing for retail sale of the new product
was part of a “big effort that we wanted to make as an energy
dealer to do a little better for the environment.”
The price at the pump is under $2.95 per gallon, according to Mr.
Packer. That’s about 36 cents more than straight low-sulfur
diesel.
VCS explains, “Biodiesel is a ‘biomass-based’ fuel.
It is made from vegetable oil from domestically produced oil crops
like soy or canola. It is legal for commerce in the US, both in
vehicles and boats, and is registered with the E.P.A. as both a
fuel and an additive. It can be used straight or mixed with petroleum
diesel (in winter) to maintain viscosity…. Biodiesel helps
supplement dwindling fossil fuel reserves, and reduces atmospheric
accumulation of carbon dioxide. Because it is made from renewable
agricultural crops that assimilate carbon dioxide from the atmosphere,
biodiesel is called “carbon neutral” — next year’s
oil crops growing in fields capture the carbon dioxide released
from burning vegetable oil this year. Also, the energy it takes
to create and transport biodiesel is much less than for other bio-fuels
like ethanol made from corn.”
For more information, go to Biodiesel at the VCS Almanac web site
www.almanac.vineyardconservationsociety.org.
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