MUKILTEO – Customers of the farmers market in town now can fill their fuel tanks as well as their bellies, and do it in an environmentally healthy way.
Dan Bates / The Herald
Biodiesel fuel made from virgin soy oil is available at the market and will be there every other Thursday through the end of the market’s run in October.
The fuel arrives courtesy of Dr. Dan’s Alternative Fuel Werks of Ballard. A 415-gallon plastic tank in a pickup bed is filled with the thick, yellow fuel and driven to the market.
It’s one of the few places in Snohomish County to get biodiesel.
Market director Eden Trenor has been driving her 1987 Mercedes diesel wagon to Ballard for about a year to fill up, she said.
She and others are frustrated by the lack of access to the fuel, she said, so she invited Dan Freeman to sell the fuel at the market.
The number of gallons sold has increased with each visit, Dr. Dan’s employee Scott Steele said. The first visit, 80 gallons were sold, the second 96 and last Thursday 126. The fuel sells for $3.10 a gallon, Steele said.
Only four customers bought fuel last week, but one bought 52 gallons.
Buddy Baker of Mukilteo filled the 35-gallon tank on his Dodge Ram Turbo Diesel 2500 and also brought four six-gallon jugs to fill up.
He said he’d been looking for biodiesel for his truck when his wife recently saw a notice for the fuel at the Mukilteo Farmers Market posted on an e-board notice. The market’s Web site also mentions the biodiesel.
“It smells like a fryer instead of stinking and making you kind of nauseous,” Baker said. The gas mileage is about the same.
“It’s a little more expensive, but it’s worth it,” said Marze Kasalar of Mukilteo, who filled up her Volkswagen Jetta on Thursday. She’d been buying the fuel from Mike Moreno of Mill Creek, who sold it at his home until recently.
Moreno recently suspended his operation when he ran into problems with his homeowners association, but plans to resume selling soon in Maltby.
A Microsoft employee, Moreno describes his biodiesel operation on his Web site, TurboFroggy.com, as “an obsessive hobby.”
“I’m not out to make any money at it,” he said.
The slack in Mill Creek was recently picked up by Sean Aydlott, who now sells by appointment from his home. Like Moreno, he sells for about $3 a gallon.
He has a tank on the back of a truck and drives to Seaport Petroleum in Seattle to fill it up. Seaport is a distributor for Seattle Biodiesel, which supplies Dr. Dan’s as well.
The fuel is made in Iowa and shipped west, Steele said. The oil has to be processed in a certain way to achieve the right viscosity, he said. It works in any diesel engine.
Dr. Dan’s is considering expanding into Snohomish County and is using the Mukilteo visits as a test run, Steele said.
Trenor, who works at the Sno-Isle Co-op Market in Everett, said it is considering selling biodiesel. Customers have indicated an interest, she said.
“It’s a great thing,” Kasalar said. “It feels good at a very deep level to be able to get around and run your life and not pollute the environment.”
Reporter Bill Sheets: 425-339-3439 or sheets@heraldnet.com.
What is biodiesel?
Biodiesel is created by combining a vegetable oil or animal fat with an alcohol, such as methanol, along with a catalyst such as sodium or potassium hydroxide to produce methyl esters (the chemical name for biodiesel). The resulting fuel can be burned in any diesel engine either by itself or mixed with conventional diesel. It comes from a renewable source, is biodegradable, nontoxic and has dramatically fewer harmful emissions than gasoline or regular diesel, according to the National Biodiesel Board.
Where to get it
Biodiesel will be sold from 6 to 8 p.m. every other week through October at the Mukilteo Farmers Market, 3 to 8 p.m. Thursdays in the playfield behind the Rosehill Community Center, 304 Lincoln Ave.
The next date biodiesel will be available is Aug. 5.
Mill Creek-area resident Sean Aydlott sells biodiesel out at home by appointment. He may be reached at biodog@ mochabigface.com or 206-719-2815.
Mike Moreno of Mill Creek has numerous biodiesel links on his Web site, www.turbofroggy.com.
Dr. Dan’s Alternative Fuel Werks, which sells the biodiesel at the Mukilteo market, is located at 912 NW 50th St. in Seattle. For more information call 206-783-5728 or go to www.fuelwerks.com.
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