Fuel of the future

  • By Jennifer Warnick and Debra Smith / Herald writers
  • Saturday, February 11, 2006 9:00pm
  • Local NewsLocal news

Biodiesel is the buzz.

Michael V. Martina / The Herald

Sean Aydlott (left) pumps biodiesel fuel for Steve Tucker recently at Aydlotts home in Bothell. Aydlott buys the fuel from a company in Seattle and sells it to about a dozen people who live nearby.

The alternative fuel, made of vegetable oil crushed from tiny seeds and often mixed with petroleum diesel, is being billed as many things.

Leaders across the state think it could be an agriculture revivalist, an environmental savior and an economic hero.

They wonder: What if we could squeeze the oil we use out of seeds grown in Washington, rather than squeezing oil out of the Middle East?

In Olympia, politicians on both sides of the aisle are singing biodiesel’s praises in four-part harmony and planning funding and ideas to help spur the industry.

Even President Bush, in his recent State of the Union address, briefly cited his support for alternative fuels.

Snohomish County leaders have said they support the idea, and earlier this year hundreds of the county’s fleet vehicles started using a blend of fuel that is 20 percent biodiesel.

Drivers who have already started using biodiesel in their vehicles are a hardy few, but swear by the stuff and are willing to pay more for it, and drive well out of their way to fill up with it.

Here at home, the million-dollar question remains: What can biodiesel do for Snohomish County, where agriculture continues to struggle and almost 30,000 acres of farmland sit idle?

Whether biodiesel ends up being a trend or a revolution, there are more questions than answers about Western Washington’s role. Snohomish County farmers are watching and waiting. They’re interested, but cautious.

“There’s no question that this is where we’re headed,” Monroe farmer Dale Reiner said. “But there’s a lot of things that have to happen to make oil seed viable for farmers here.”

Since 2004, Reiner has worked with the county and with Washington State University Extension to plant two oil seed test crops just to see if the crops would grow here, and to determine whether the seeds contain enough oil to make growing them worthwhile.

“It looks like we’re in the ballpark, as far as being able to produce a seed that has a high enough oil content to be processed,” said Tim Miller, a WSU weed scientist.

“We’re in the ballpark, and we weren’t particularly putting a lot of love into it, just seeing if we could grow it.”

This spring, they will put a little love into it by planting 40 acres of oil seed instead of less than an acre, to determine whether growing the crop on a large scale is economically feasible for farmers.

“Farmers think it’s great – the whole idea is great. We’re certainly looking to do all we can to help out, but we’re not going to jump in and plant 1,000 acres in Snohomish County in the next year or two,” Reiner said. “We’ll get there, but not quite as fast as the eastern side of the mountains.”

It’s on the road

Every morning before work, Everett resident Steve Tucker turns the ignition on his creamy yellow 1980 Mercedes.

The diesel engine roars to life and hums like an old Singer sewing machine. Wisps of white smoke drift from the tailpipe. Other than the faint smell of hot cooking oil, no one driving behind Tucker would guess that fuel made from soybeans powers his car.

“It is exactly like using regular fuel, except it smells more pleasant,” said Tucker, an engineer.

He is one of a small but dedicated group of Snohomish County drivers who are fueling their rides with biodiesel. They put up with higher prices and inconvenience to use a fuel that is less toxic than table salt and as biodegradable as sugar.

A gallon of biodiesel costs $3.18, compared with about $2.58 for a gallon of diesel, and it’s not available at the corner fuel station.

That didn’t stop Tucker. He was so enthused by the clean-burning alternative to petroleum that he purchased the diesel Mercedes last spring for $1,000.

“Part of the reason is I wanted the U.S. to be self-sufficient” in oil, rather than depending on foreign suppliers, said Tucker, who describes his politics as “just a little left of middle.” He also likes supporting American farmers and avoiding further Alaska oil drilling.

Tucker considered making his own biodiesel fuel from used vegetable oil discarded by restaurants. But the trouble of collecting it and the cost of processing it at home ($3,000 for the equipment) didn’t appeal to him.

Instead, Tucker buys his fuel from Sean Aydlott, who sells it from his home in a quiet Bothell neighborhood.

Aydlott began selling the alternative fuel two years ago after he had trouble finding it in Snohomish County. One distributor experimented with selling biodiesel at the Mukilteo farmer’s market last summer, but other than mom-and-pop operations, the closest commercial biodiesel pumps are in Seattle and Bellevue.

Aydlott drives a Ford F350 diesel pickup with a sticker on the back that says: “Powered by Biodiesel: Clean. Renewable. Domestic.”

Aydlott has about a dozen customers who fuel up from a horse trailer converted into a traveling fuel station. Customers call or e-mail Aydlott when they need fuel.

Once a month, Aydlott hooks the trailer to his truck, drives to Seaport Petroleum near Boeing Field in Seattle and fills his two 275-gallon tanks.

“I set this up to be convenient for me,” said Adylott, a general contractor. “I am not making any money off my time.”

Adylott said more widespread use of the fuel is hampered by misconceptions. People think it will void their vehicle warranty, that engines need to be altered, and that performance is poor.

None of that is not true, he said.

“A lot of people think of this big, black puffy spew of smoke,” Aydlott said. “The hard thing to get over is that it’s not that way.”

Mix and match

Drivers can use pure biodiesel or a blend of biodiesel and petroleum diesel. They can also switch between the two.

Today’s diesel engines are quieter and more efficient than they used to be, and when filled with biodiesel, they run cleaner and smoother. The fuel acts as a lubricant and cleans the engine.

In Europe, nearly half the new cars sold are powered by diesel engines, the Diesel Technology Forum says.

But Americans have to look harder for a diesel vehicle. In the U.S., only a small number of passenger cars and light trucks are diesel – about one in 20 new vehicles sold in 2004.

In most vehicles, a special kit is required to run straight vegetable oil because the oil must be heated before you can use it in your engine.

For Tucker, the biodiesel cleaned his engine so well that he had to replace the filters soon after he began using it.

Aydlott sees biodiesel as a way to wean the U.S. from petroleum. More people will try it as gas prices rise, he said. But for devoted users, doing the right thing is worth paying more now, he said.

“I like to go out in nature, I like to recycle,” Aydlott said. “This is something else I can do, one more little bit.”

Tailpipe dreams

Snohomish County’s biodiesel field of dreams might look something like this:

On weekends, city folks take leisurely drives through bucolic farmlands, where thousands of formerly empty fields are now full of bright yellow flowers: mustard seed and canola.

They drive diesel cars that run in part on fuel grown on both sides of the roads they meander.

Farmers who have managed to work oil seed into their crop rotations harvest the yellow flowers for their round, 2mm-diameter seeds, which are then crushed for the oil.

The mush left over from the oil pressing is sold as field dressing or mulch to other farmers and gardeners. The mashed seed casings act as a natural pesticide and weed repellent.

Far-fetched? Maybe.

Oil seed plants are vigorous cross-pollinators, which could endanger the viability of other crops.

There’s also a question of startup costs and equipment. Snohomish County farmers don’t have all the equipment they need to plant and harvest oil seed crops.

Will the demand for biodiesel warrant the risk and expense farmers would have to accept to produce a supply?

“What we really have to do is determine whether this is a viable thing, and we won’t know until we have at least one more season under our belts,” said Mike Hackett, a WSU agriculture development faculty member who worked with Miller and Reiner on the two test crops.

Have a hard time imagining a world in which trucking companies brew their own diesel fuel from recycled french fry oil and local field crops?

Diane Kamionka, a consultant who works with farmers to find ways to increase the value of their products, put it this way:

“People who would never have thought about using e-mail can’t live without it now. All of a sudden, something becomes more everyday, doesn’t it?”

Whether biodiesel is the answer, or other types of alternative fuel prove more economical, Kamionka said the important thing is to start thinking differently.

“We clearly need to do something in the way of alternative fuels, and when you’re at this early stage in trying to make a transition from something where you’re clearly ingrained, you have to make a number of strides in different directions,” she said.

“If you sit around and wait until you’re sure, it won’t happen.”

Reporter Jennifer Warnick: 425-339-3429 or jwarnick@ heraldnet.com.

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