Come get your fill of Flex Fuel E85 and Biodiesel B20 at Propel’s new Clean Fuel Point in Sacramento @ Mak’s Valero station, 1101 Broadway. During the Grand Opening event, try $10 of Flex Fuel E85 or Biodiesel B20 for FREE!
The Grand Opening celebration goes from Tuesday, September 11 through Friday, September 14, 10am – 7pm. Hope to see you all there!
Posted in Biodiesel, Ethanol, Events, Flex Fuel, Flex Fuel E85, Propel Biofuels, Propel Customers, Retail locations, Vehicles
Tagged alternative fuel, american fuel, American made, biodiesel driver, biofuel, biofuel feedstock, diesel, domestic fuel, E85, E85 driver, ethanol, flex fuel tahoe, ford diesel, ford ffv, global warming, Green Business, Jetta TDI, low-carbon fuel, propel, Propel customer, Propel Fuels, renewable fuel, Volkswagen TDI
The joint project by leading ethanol producer, POET, and the city of Sioux Falls uses landfill gas to help power POET’s Chancellor, South Dakota ethanol production facility. Methane gas created by the Sioux Falls Regional Sanitary Landfill is transported down an 11-mile pipeline to POET’s biorefinery, helping to power ethanol production.
Methane, a major factor in global warming, is captured, converted and put to use producing process steam for ethanol production–using methane offsets 15 percent of the facility’s energy needs, reducing overall CO2 emissions by more than 26,000 tons per year.
Revenue from selling methane to POET and subsequent carbon credits, earns an additional 1 million dollars per year for the city of Sioux Falls.
Earlier this month, the Environmental Protection Agency recognized the innovative work of the POET-Sioux Falls project in an award ceremony for programs that “employed unique project structures and took creative approaches to utilize (landfill gas) from municipal solid waste landfills.” The project will continue to grow as the supply of landfill gases increase, doubling capacity by 2025.
In their continuing mission to expand the distribution of biodiesel, Propel Biofuels recently flipped the switch on their Factoria Clean Fuel Point. Propel Clean Fuel Points are a unique tank/dispenser kiosk that can easily be added to the footprint of existing gas stations. Like every Clean Fuel Point, the Factoria station is integrated with CleanDrive emissions reporting. With each fill customers have the ability to see how much they’re reducing their carbon footprint. CleanDrive is available FREE to Propel customers.
CleanDrive reports show criteria like:
- Reductions in CO2 by using biodiesel
- Barrels of oil displaced
- Equivalent annual impact of mature trees
This new Clean Fuel Point, like all Propel locations is open 24/7, takes all major credit cards and serves only the highest quality biodiesel.
Just last week news broke that Safeway is switching its trucking fleet to biodiesel. This week Broomfield, Colorado’s Corporate Express has announced a similar move. To help curb harmful greenhouse emissions and enhance the performance of their fleet’s diesel engines, the company is now fueling their 45 trucks with B20.
“Using biodiesel in our trucks will advance our distribution while decreasing emissions and further reducing our Company’s carbon footprint,” said Jay Mutschler, President of Corporate Express US.
This is great news for biodiesel advocates as the use of the clean-burning, renewable fuel by companies dependent on diesel vehicles greatly enhances the fuel’s legitimacy as a mainstream fuel source.
We’ve been hearing it for decades: the next breakthrough fuel technology is just around the corner. Hydrogen, electric, fuel cells–all have shown promise to free the world from its dependence on fossil fuels. Yet for one reason or another, we wait and wait for the automakers to catch up or the technology to perfected. Meanwhile, in a relatively short-span, researchers have developed a method of extracting oil from algae and converting it to a viable fuel source. What makes algal biodiesel different from the aforementioned panaceas? Consumers will not need to wait on Detroit to take advantage of it as the current and future fleet of diesel vehicles will be able to use it with no conversion required. More importantly, algae is a rapidly renewable biodiesel feedstock that does not compete with food sources like soy beans or corn. Leading the way is Solazyme, a bioenergy upstart out of San Francisco, in a unique partnership with Chevron. Unique because instead of eschewing the help of big oil, Solazyme founders Jonathan Wilson and Harrison Dillon embraced Chevron’s R&D muscle as way to accelerate algal-biodiesel’s path to widespread commercial use. For more information check out this post from Wired magazine, and be sure to watch the trailer to “Fields of Gold,” the biodiesel documentary produced by biodiesel advocate Josh Tickell.
Safeway has boldly chosen to become one of the nation’s first major retailers to convert its fleet to clean burning biodiesel. No doubt the benefits of biodiesel were hard for the Pleasonton, California-based company to ignore.
In addition to improved engine performance, less harmful emissions, and a fuel source that isn’t tied to the volatility of the Middle East, none of the company’s 1,000 fleet vehicles will require any major mechanical conversion as biodiesel performs exceptionally well in any diesel motor.
Posted in Biodiesel, Biodiesel Quality, Green Business, Media, Propel Biofuels, Retail locations, Vehicles
Tagged Biodiesel, biofuel, BMW, carbon, diesel, ethanol, global warming, hybrid, Mercedes, propel, VW
Leading a wave of new clean-burning diesels headed to the states are two offerings from BMW that deliver power and performance with the added benefit of a good carbon-conscience. Take a look at this article describing the BMW 335d sedan and X5 3.0sd SUV.
BMW makes no reference regarding the use of biodiesel in these vehicles, but rest assured we’ll pass along any warranty information or blend recommendations put out from Bavaria.
The biodiesel sticker: a creature of a thousand faces that is becoming easier to spot on vehicles throughout the country. It comes in many forms from your basic “Powered By Biodiesel” to the more creative “Go By Grease,” and almost always it crops up on the bumpers of European passenger vehicles like VWs, Mercedes and Volvos. But while the average biodiesel user is depicted as a more socially conscious, urban dweller, biodiesel is slowly gaining traction with commercial diesel powerusers. And if you have any interest in seeing biodiesel become a mainstream alternative to petroleum fuels, you’ll want to read this article that describes a unique field study being led by the Iowa Soybean Association. The two-year study, called the “Two Million Mile Haul,” is examining the benefits of using biodiesel blends in the trucking industry. The results–as anyone familiar with biodiesel might assume-support the use of biodiesel in long haulers which represent “the largest single users of diesel fuel” in the country. Such a study–and others like it–should be considered a boost to the biodiesel industry. Though many Volkswagens and small diesel passenger vehicles will pepper the freeways in the next few years, a challenge for biodiesel proponents is to get light-duty truck owners to trust biodiesel. Now, with opinion leaders in the farm belt stumping for biodiesel, you can bet more Duramax’s, Cummins’ and Powerstrokes will have biodiesel running in their veins. And as light duty diesel trucks outnumber passenger diesels in the U.S. by roughly 10 to 1, it would be nice to see them join the party.
The January issue of Popular Mechanics just arrived in mailboxes and is a must read for anyone wondering whether to go Hybrid or Diesel. In “The Case For Diesel” author Ben Hewitt reports how the “dark-horse of fossil fuels has cleaned up its act, allowing automakers to create cars for the U.S. that are ultraefficient and high-performance.” Case in point, in a side-by-side comparison to see how hybrids compare to their diesel-powered cousins, a Toyota Prius is matched up against a VW Polo BlueMotion 1. The results were impressive. The Polo not only drove 38% further on a gallon of fuel (74.3 mpg vs. 54 mpg) but also generated 5% fewer greenhouse gas emissions per mile. Though the article makes no mention of biodiesel, one can assume through existing data that switching-out the ultra-low sulfur diesel used in this test for a biodiesel blend would even further reduce greenhouse gas emissions. And though the VW Polo is presently only available in Europe, the article showcases the new wave of diesels coming stateside in the next two years. Among those listed were the Audi A4 Sedan, Honda Accord Sedan and a F-150 pick-up boasting a 4.4-liter V8 rated to 31 mpg.
