Truckers, Make Your Own Fuel!

If there is one thing more troubling to the trucking industry than the rising cost of fuel, it’s the uncertainty of where and when the prices will go up next. At the same time, there are newer considerations that have to be faced, questions about fuel efficiency, ecological considerations, and legislation coming into effect that will mandate newer, less efficient fuels like ethanol in the gas market.

The simple task of converting to ULSD did not go flawlessly as announced since numerous fleet owners noticed that the new fuel was more abrasive than anticipated. Maintenance schedules had to be tightened and fuel managers started looking to ways to protect themselves in meaningful ways.

One solution quickly came to the forefront, biodiesel, with its significantly higher lubricity, ready availability and useful ecological message, became a popular route out of the fuel mess. Then a few bad experiences under cold climates quickly turned the swan back into an ugly duckling. The problems were major because of inexperienced operators running small biodiesel batch processors produced fuel that under winter conditions turned to soap and clogged filters. It was a repeat of the horrors of the early days of ULSD which dissolved some of the rubber lines in the older trucks.

That was then and this is now. Biodiesel can be made efficiently, inexpensively and most importantly reliably in the new modern facilities. The new ASTM standards clearly set down the tests and results that the fuel must meet and the most modern technologies do not even require the use of water, the main source of contamination from soap and a major source of pollution from waste water flowing out of the process.

Even engine builders are coming around to the new reality, if Cummins allows B20 (20% biodiesel blend) in their larger engines, can the rest of the world be far behind? No truck manufacturer completely disallows the blend, but most are hedging their bets at the B5 level. Those numbers could be an endangered species as local, state and federal laws move towards more and more renewable energy legislation.

So what is biodiesel? Quite simply it is the product of a process called transesterification, a fancy word for converting a mixture of vegetable oil or animal fats and methanol into a natural form of diesel fuel and glycerin. What it is not is the pure vegetable oil that some farmers are putting into their tractors. It is a one to one replacement fuel for diesel, it can be run straight (B100) or mixed in with petroleum diesel and it carries a lot of advantages over the petroleum product.

To start with it is much more lubricating than ULSD, in concentration of just 5% engine rebuilders have noticed up to 25% less wear on engine components. In real dollar terms that translates to 25% more miles between rebuilds, which, for major trucking firms may not mean that much since they resell their units on average every three years, but for the independent trucker buying these trucks means money in the bank.. Using biodiesel on a regular basis also significantly reduces all forms of pollution. It is made from natural substances containing no carbon, so CO emissions are reduced. Another advantage is political, it reduces our dependence on foreign oil sources and hands jobs back to the farmers of America.

When Willie Nelson sings On the Road Again, he means in a biodiesel powered truck.

So why is it not more available?

Actually there are pockets of biodiesel all over North America with some states more aggressive than others in promoting its use. But one solution that is already used in Germany is for trucking companies with large regional fleets and even cross-country haulers, to make their own in 3 to 5 million gallon plants strategically located near main shipping and hauling routes.

This is not a light decision, a 5 million gallon a year turnkey facility, will set your company back about $6 million if you need to build it from scratch. The processor itself is around $2 million. A complete facility will require fueling racks, storage tanks for the biodiesel, feedstock and catalyst. But the processes are now fully automated, can be handled by one or two employees, will include a comprehensive lab to ensure that the fuel meets ASTM specs and will allow the owner to set his own production schedule based on demand, price of feedstock and blending demands. Of course if you decide to build a bigger plant, there will be demand for your offtake from other companies like yours.

On the other hand there are many really small 40 to 300 gallon a day units on the market that would allow small trucking companies to make enough fuel over a weekend the take care of business. The only drawback would be finding a suitable source of oil for the machine.

One of the advantages of the new plants is that they allow the use of a multitude of feedstock, from palm oil to chicken fat, and blends of these different products. All this makes for a more flexible production schedule and process. If soy oil is hitting stratospheric pricing, then a simple computer adjustment will change the process for palm, or recuperated restaurant greases. There is a price flexibility built into the system that is not available with petroleum. And the Federal Government will give you a dollar for every gallon you mix in with your regular load.

The time may have come for you to seriously consider installing your own production facility. Not because it will ensure plentiful supplies of first grade fuel for your trucks, but because biodiesel will soon be mandated somewhere on your routes; because biodiesel is an easy fuel to implement unlike some of the more exotic solutions like hydrogen. But mostly you should look into it because it will give you the feeling of doing something very important for your trucks, your drivers and the world in general.