Biodiesels may come to the rescue for the county fleets.
The jury is still out on whether biodiesels are cheaper, but the fuel is plentiful and much cleaner than petroleum diesel.
“Anne Arundel County is looking at every possible alternative fuel that we can look at,” said Fred Schram, director of central services, “The sooner we can get off petroleum, the better.”
Schram said some of the county?s trucks are currently running on B20 fuel to test the cost efficiency and environmental impact of the petroleum blend.
The trial period will last until this summer so officials get a sense of the fuel?s efficiency in multiple seasons.
The advantage of using biodiesel as opposed to other alternative fuels like ethanol is that the county would be able to use the tanks it already has, officials said.
Biodiesel, which usually blends a substance like soybean oil or animal fat with a petroleum diesel, is considered cleaner than petroleum diesel, which is about 13 known carcinogens. It can be used with diesel engines or to heat homes.
“The fuel is very widely in Maryland on a commercial basis to fleets,” Susanne Zilberfarb, biodisel project coordinator for the Maryland Soybean Board said.
But biodiesels may not be always cheaper than regular diesel. Zilberfarn estimated that biodiesel blends only cost less than petroleum diesels about a third of the time.
That?s one reason it?s been difficult to convince many gas retailers to sell biofuels directly to drivers. Dan Goodman, a technology commercialization fellow at the U.Md. Robert H. Smith School of Business said demand for biodiesels has to be overwhelming to convince some retailers to sell it. Only certain cars, including brands of Volkswagens and Jeeps, have diesel engines.
But Goodman said there is definitely a market for biodiesels and encourages people who want to buy it to tell gas station owners.
“I get calls every day for people looking for a place to buy consumer biodisel,” Goodman said.
