Here is a snippet of what I have done in the past. This is back in 2007.
City fleet, Ontario, Canada-Biodiesel no longer made from only the oil from fish fries but now include vegetable oils.
City operations officials hope to begin a year-long test of biodiesel fuel in one of four Owen Sound Transit buses this month.
The test is the first step in a proposed shift to biodiesel for city vehicles over the next two years, depending on performance results, outlined in a report to operations committee members by operations manager Mike Crone. In interviews Monday both committee chair Bill Twaddle and vice-chair Jim McManaman welcomed the move.
A similar test is underway with Grey County vehicles using fuel supplied by Owen Sound-based Georgian Bio Fuels Canada.
Business is booming for the year-old firm which uses recycled vegetable oils as the basis for its fuel, company president Greg Lougheed said Monday.
Because the biodiesel fuel gels in cold weather, there are adjustments in Georgian Bio Fuels products. In warm summer conditions, the firm dispenses a 100 per cent biodiesel fuel at its distribution centre in the Owen Sound industrial park.
In cold winter conditions, the blend with petroleum-based diesel fuel can go as low as five per cent. The city’s test is to be based on a 10 per cent blend in summer and the five per cent blend in winter.
The fuel is priced competitively with conventional diesel fuel, Lougheed said. City officials expect to monitor fuel consumption, fuel-related maintenance costs and to analyze emissions, with test costs in the range of $1,550.
Direct comparisons between the bio-bus and others operating with conventional fuel after a year could lead to an expanded test using all city buses and one garbage packer truck. Successful performance of bio diesel fuels on the larger test could lead to a major shift in city operations department vehicles, Crone said in his report.
In addition to municipal tests on county and city vehicles, Lougheed’s company has a growing list of private customers who have pushed total sales to date beyond 100,000 litres.
“It’s feasible,” Lougheed said. “We provide it at a better price. They’re pretty convinced it works and we are too.”
“We are completely down the road on this. We were selling B 100 (100 per cent biodiesel fuel) all last summer.”
The company is an offshoot of Lougheed Fisheries. It began with recycled restaurant cooking oil from fish customers but has expanded to process supplies of vegetable oils from throughout southwestern Ontario.
“I’ve been dealing with research for two years and actually selling fuel for about a year now,” Lougheed said. “It’s changing very quickly.”
The city considered a bio-diesel test two years ago before Lougheed developed local supplies and found it cost prohibitive.
“Now with a local supplier it just makes sense that we get on board with this,” McManaman said in an interview Monday. McManaman predicts environmental benefits from the move through lower emissions.
“Biofuel will drop the emissions coming out of the tailpipe by huge numbers. If you looked at the entire city fleet using diesel fuel, we’re talking a significant difference,” McManaman said.
Greg Lougheed