State gradually boards biodiesel bandwagon
Toolbox
By ROBIN PALMER Staff Writer - Published: January 30, 2005
Mention soybeans and most people think of tofu or Chinese food. But at Sugarbush ski resort, soybeans are powering groomers on the slopes and keeping snow off parking lots.
Thanks to some recent grants, fuel called biodiesel is being used to power up two Vermont businesses and a school while also helping to bring renewable fuel use into the mainstream.
Produced from domestic, renewable resources such as vegetable oils – including soybeans – and animal fats, biodiesel contains no petroleum. It can be used alone or blended with petroleum diesel for use in diesel engines.
The $2,500 grants were awarded to the Vermont Coffee Co. in Bristol, Sugarbush Resort in Warren and Vermont Law School in South Royalton by the Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund, a nonprofit created by the Legislature in 1995 to retain jobs and enhance the environment.
Sugarbush is using the grant to fuel grooming and plowing equipment with a biodiesel mix; Vermont Coffee Co. hopes to power a new roaster with pure biodiesel, and the law school is heating its library with a mixture of the renewable fuel and regular heating oil.
Dan Willey, an owner of Global E Industries, a Cavendish biodiesel supplier, says the grants are doing more than providing suppliers with three new, high-profile customers; they're also increasing public awareness of the alternative-energy product.
"It's become quite an educational process, because not everyone understands the products or the benefits of the products," says Willey, who runs Global E with partner Joseph Lambert.
The biodiesel Willey sells is made from soybean oil. He says oil is extracted from soybeans using a crushing method or a press. It's then refined, using a catalyst that separates the oil into two products – glycerin and biodiesel.
He says the product has several benefits. It comes from a renewable resource, it's less polluting than petroleum products, and it supports U.S. farmers.
Soybean farmers are located primarily in the Midwest, but Vermont farmers in the Lake Champlain region are growing soybeans for food, Willey notes.
Vermont Law School applied for the grant because it wants to educate its students about environmentally sound fuel alternatives, says Peter Miller, the school's director of media relations.
"We're the nation's leading environmental law school," says Miller, "and will … make sure our students learn about this. … We want to share what we learn."
He envisions students returning to their hometowns with a knowledge of biodiesel and an interest in promoting its use in public buildings.
The law school has implemented other environmentally friendly practices. An academic building has composting toilets and other energy efficiencies, and a second building under reconstruction will have the same technology. A Campus Greening Committee also works to improve the college's environmental performance, Miller says.
The grant announcement pushed the school to consider the alternative fuel this year, Miller says.
"We're open to this. We wanted to see how things would work in terms of the supplying of this," says Miller.
Biodiesel can be used in place of petroleum fuel in oil heating system boilers with minor or no modifications.
"It works just fine. We don't have to have a new burner or anything like that," Miller says.
At Sugarbush, besides using a mix of biodiesel and petroleum diesel in grooming equipment and a large loader, the resort is experimenting with biodiesel in a tractor and in its SugarMobile, a 1980s ice cream truck turned marketing vehicle, Jones says.
"Our experience has been very positive to date," says Tim Jones, Sugarbush's environmental compliance coordinator.
According to Willey, biodiesel fuel from Global E heats two state buildings, in Brattleboro and Springfield, is used at Middlebury College, and is available at filling stations in Brattleboro and Bridport, and soon St. Johnsbury. Global E Industries is working to make biodiesel more available, including at the pump, he said.
A drawback is that the natural fuel is more expensive than petroleum products. Global E currently charges $2.88 a gallon for biodiesel for both heating and fueling cars. Federal and state taxes further drive up the cost at the gas pump.
To keep the cost down, Willey says, the law school is using a mixture of 20 percent biodiesel and 80 percent regular heating fuel. The mixture is necessary during the colder winter months. "Just like any fuel oil, it tends to thicken a little bit," says Willey of biodiesel.
Concerns over cold-weather storage and reliable delivery have kept Vermont Coffee Co. from powering a new roaster with biodiesel, says owner Paul Ralston, who had hoped to be using 100 percent biodiesel by now in a roaster he spent $100,000 designing.
"At the very earliest, it will be warm weather," says Ralston.
The organic, fair-trade coffee company also hopes to heat an as yet-to-be-constructed building with biodiesel, too. The company is looking to build in Bristol this year, Ralston said.
"It is a small part of our effort to shift the company to all renewable energy sources," Ralston says.
Ralston admits that the change to biodiesel requires commitment.
"The big challenge right now with alternative energy is you really have to be driven to do it." Ralston says he's spent hundreds of hours trying to solve problems that could have been fixed with one call to a petroleum supplier.
Willey hopes federal tax rebates going into effect soon will help make biodiesel more competitive.
Some users, like Ralston though, say the benefits outweigh the costs.
Ralston says he is planning to use it "because we're going to run out of oil. It's going to be the last one standing, and we will be the ones who have made the switch." He hasn't even considered the price per gallon, he says.
Some Midwestern school districts have started using biodiesel for buses after children became ill from diesel fumes. And celebrities are bringing attention to the product: Presidential candidate John Kerry used biodiesel in his campaign bus, and singer Willie Nelson is marketing biodiesel at the pump for truckers, bringing new meaning to his hit "On the Road Again."
Biodiesel is a good choice for ski areas for snowmaking equipment, says Willey. Snowmaking equipment is located near ponds or rivers. Using biodiesel in stationary snowmaking compressors, as Sugarbush is planning to do with its grant, means less chance for pollution, should fuel from the snowmaking equipment spill or leak into those water sources, Willey says.
Biodiesel may also be more efficient than gasoline. Willey drives a 1981 Volkswagen Rabbit that he powers with biodiesel. He says he gets 50 miles to the gallon.
Willey predicts more uses for biodiesel, too.
"It will never completely replace petroleum products, but there are still a lot of uses that need investigating," he says.
Contact Robin Palmer at robin.palmer@timesargus.com or 479-0191, ext. 1171.
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