Cities Turn to Biodiesel Earth Day and Every Day
Renewable, Clean Biodiesel Offers Green Alternative for City Fleets

JEFFERSON CITY, MO. – Border to border and coast to coast, cities rely on biodiesel as a renewable energy solution. The cleaner burning, sustainable fuel packs a powerful environmental punch and is hard at work in cities across the United States.

“Biodiesel makes sense on Earth Day and every day,” said Joe Jobe, National Biodiesel Board CEO. “Not only does biodiesel reduce most regulated emissions and greenhouse gas, but also it is the only alternative fuel that can immediately and seamlessly transition a diesel fleet to a cleaner-burning fuel program.”

Biodiesel is a cleaner burning, advanced alternative fuel. Last year’s 700 million gallons of biodiesel production reduced greenhouse gas emissions the equivalent of removing 980,000 vehicles from U.S. roads. It is easy to understand why so many cities, such as Denver for just one example, turn to biodiesel as a reliable alternative to petroleum diesel.

“Denver has a strong environmental and sustainability program, so we are always looking to reduce our carbon footprint,” said Carlos Guerra, Denver Public Works Facility Manager. “You add that to the escalation of oil costs and biodiesel seemed like the only responsible thing to do.”

The city operates 60 heavy-duty vehicles on B20 (a blend of 80 petroleum diesel and 20 percent biodiesel) year round and has been using a biodiesel blend for more than five years. Even in cold Denver winters the biodiesel blend offers both performance and environmental benefits.

“Everything we have that uses diesel, uses biodiesel,” said Guerra. “It’s no more difficult than regular diesel. All the cold weather protections we had in place since before we started using a biodiesel blend work just as well. We have not had to adjust any of them.”

Biodiesel is also among the most powerful tools to fight carbon emission, chipping away at the largest contributor of greenhouse gas emissions - fossil fuels. In fact, biodiesel has a 78 percent life cycle carbon reduction according to the USDA/DOE. Denver is not alone in taking advantage of biodiesel’s green attributes.

Albuquerque – All of Albuquerque’s approximately 750 diesel vehicles began using biodiesel blends in 2004. About 45 percent of the city’s fleet boasts alternative fuel, including biodiesel.

Atlanta – Atlanta is working to introduce a Zero Waste Zone. The target area, in the downtown convention district will focus on recycling and reusing all waste products. As an integral part of the initiative restaurants will recycle used grease for the local production of biodiesel.

Birmingham – About two years ago Birmingham introduced biodiesel as a step towards reducing overall emissions. Now about 600 city vehicles operate on a blend of the cleaner burning fuel.

Dallas – Texas is known for doing things big, and in Dallas they are using biodiesel to do things better as well. Biodiesel blends are an integral part of operation for several hundred vehicles including sanitation trucks, utility trucks and construction equipment.

Greensboro – Greensboro takes a clean path for a dirty job. Their 700 garbage trucks rely on a cleaner burning biodiesel blend to make the rounds to pick up Greensboro’s garbage.

Kansas City – Since 2002, Kansas City has ramped up its biodiesel use to now include 1100 vehicles. Whenever costs allow, the city uses B20 October through March and B50 in the summer.

Las Vegas - Las Vegas has put B20 to work year round and continuously in all on and off road diesel powered vehicles and equipment since 2001. The fleet includes a long list of important resources such as street sweepers, Vactor trucks, 18 wheelers, dump trucks, pick up trucks, Gators, trenchers, backhoes, skid steers, cargo vans, 22 passenger buses, forklifts, aerial lift trucks, front loaders, tractors, asphalt patch trucks, water trucks, flail mowers, utility body trucks, field rakes, aerators, concrete saws and even trash compactors. The city reports that, because it is cleaner burning than conventional Type # 2 diesel fuel, maintenance costs have been reduced an average of 17 percent, performance has been enhanced and visible particulate soot has been virtually eliminated.

San Francisco – Though the city by the bay has been on the biodiesel bandwagon for some time, they continue to come up with new and innovative initiatives. A new plant under construction will convert trap grease (or brown grease) collected from restaurants to biodiesel. (The city already collects and recycles used cooking oil, called yellow grease.) The plant is the first brown grease to biodiesel plant in the nation. As part of the project San Francisco will create a tool kit to make it easy for other communities to adopt similar programs.

Biodiesel’s environmental benefits are wide spread. The fuel is nontoxic and biodegrades as fast as sugar. Biodiesel is the only alternative fuel to have fully completed the health effects testing requirements of the Clean Air Act. It is domestically produced from a range of readily available products like soybean and other plant oils, animal fats, recycled restaurant grease, and waste grease. In addition work continues on new renewable fuel sources, including algae, to bolster what is already the most diversified fuel on the planet.

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