|
Cities Using Biodiesel as renewable energy |
|
|
|
|
Wednesday, 01 July 2009 |
|
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 and undeniably, palm oil is one of the most sustainable of feedstocks for the production of biodiesel. Apart from Denver, many other cities are also taking advantage of biodiesel's green attributes.THE END
Source: National Biodiesel Board |
Comments
You must javascript enabled to use this form
You are not authorized to leave comments. Please
Login first.
If you are not a member, please register
here.
