By Vicki Griffin
Drive by any area service station and the ever increasing gas prices are evident, with diesel outpacing even expensive premium.
Most folks wouldn't take notice of the cost of diesel, but perhaps we should as this is the fuel that most local municipalities run their fleets on, and we, as taxpayers, bear that burden.
Diesel engines overwhelmingly power the trucks and equipment that help run and maintain our cities and counties because they have a lifetime nearly double that of standard engines. But lately, unfortunately, the cost of the diesel fuel to power them is also much greater than regular gasoline.
Roswell, using a federal energy grant, is looking into the feasibility of integrating biodiesel fuel to power its diesel vehicles and equipment. Biodiesel fuel recycles used cooking oil and would help park pollutants and make the city less dependent on conventional and costly diesel fossil fuel.
Currently, Roswell residents may bring their used cooking oil to the Maxwell Road Recycling Center’s receptacle where it is then sold to a company that processes the oil into biodiesel fuel.
If the feasibility study shows that it may be more cost effective for Roswell to process its own biodiesel fuel, the used oil we recycle will also be used to run the city’s diesel vehicles. Roswell expects to make a decision about purchasing the needed processing equipment sometime this spring.
The vehicles require no conversions to run on processed cooking oil, although there may be some new maintenance issues that arise as a result of using biodiesel. Fuel filters may need to be replaced more frequently, initially, for example.
The conversion ratio gives one gallon of used cooking oil to make the rough equivalent of one gallon of biodiesel fuel, so it doesn't take vast quantities of used cooking oil to convert to usable biodiesel fuel; it will take only as much as there are vehicles to regularly fuel.
Biodiesel fuel can be produced as a mixture, containing anywhere from 5 percent biodiesel to 100 percent. Municipalities will have to consider their vehicles warranties when determining the amount of blend used as many manufacturers won’t honor their warranties if the engine is running on more than 20 percent biodiesel fuel.
Tybee Island and Smyrna are ahead of Roswell with research and integration of biodiesel fuel programs. Scott Stokes, Smyrna's director of Public Works, told me Smyrna is now just waiting for its processor to be built. Using Department of Energy federal stimulus money, the city is having a processor built to begin integrating biodiesel fuel into its fleet, one vehicle at a time, beginning with the public works fleet.
Smyrna has modeled its program after a successful one in Hoover, Ala., but success here will really depend upon residents and businesses donating used cooking oil in quantities large enough to make it worthwhile. So it’s up to us to make sure our spent cooking oil isn’t polluting our sewers, but rather helping our communities save money.
Vicki Griffin has lived in Roswell for 22 years. She can be reached at vlg1230@hotmail.com.
