Propel community members share their stories . . .
Seattle, WA – South Lake Union Station – Friday, March 27th 
On this gray Friday in Seattle I ran into Zach Fogel with Stumptown Coffee Roasters at the downtown SLU station. As a direct trade coffee roaster that prides itself on knowing its growers and its roasting artistry, Stumptown was happy to find a fuel partner with shared values. 
Also, the canola was growing like crazy at the station garden, some yellow flowers beginning to pop. With such a long snowy NW winter, it shows how tough this winter crop is.
Learn more about Stumptown coffee here.
Caught up with Mark and his beautifully restored 1970 Chevy pickup at the Citrus Heights Propel location. The truck was a great color for a Flex Fuel E85 rig–mustard yellow! He had outfitted the pickup to run Flex Fuel or as Mark put it, “burn some alcohol.”
Arctic Circle Mission — A hearty group from the Indiana Soybean Alliance set off March 4th to test B100 biodiesel in the frigid temperatures of Alaska. The group aimed to run two trucks and a generator on 100% biodiesel in temperatures down to -25 degrees Fahrenheit. The specially formulated biodiesel was five years in the making — ISA, in collaboration with a researcher from Purdue University, developed Permaflo™ Biodiesel, a cold-weather biodiesel made from 
Volkswagen of America, Inc. announced it will use B5 biodiesel to power its race cars, transport vehicles and generators during the 2009 Jetta TDI Cup season. Performance testing has proven that diesel powered vehicles offer more low-end torque than traditional gasoline engines, providing quicker off-the-line acceleration that’s well suited for the race track. In addition, the Jetta TDI engine’s use of a “common rail” direct injection system improves fuel economy over gasoline engines and reduces sooty emissions by 95 percent, even under demanding race conditions. During the 2009 season, the Jetta TDI Cup cars will consume approximately two tanks of B5 biodiesel during race conditions and overall carbon emissions produced by the series will be reduced by 2,583 pounds as a result of the new fuel.
