Biodiesel Powering Council Fleet - At No Extra Cost and No Downtime

Demonstrating the mainstreaming of biodiesel as a fuel, the Ballarat City Council in Victoria now has 95 percent of its heavy (and Light Commercial) vehicle fleet operating on a 'B20' blend where 80 per cent of the fuel is traditional diesel and 20 per cent is biodiesel.

The biomass used for the twenty per cent varies depending on season, with the slightly thicker summer mix using tallow and the winter mix using canola oil. Both blends have vegetable oils in them, mainly coming from fish and chip and similar food outlets. The supplier is Biomax Fuels, part of Smorgon Fuels.

The supply costs work out to be about 1 or 2 cents per litre cheaper than normal diesel, but the main reason for the switch has been reducing emissions.

"When the trial we conducted on three vehicles delivered a 44 per cent reduction in particulate matter emissions, we moved to a phased roll out with the help of the EPA. The only vehicles we haven't switched yet are two utes and a mower." says Ballarat City Council's Fleet Administration Officer, Melanie Ferrier.

"Council installed a 68,000 litre self bunded biodiesel tank including 2 bowsers. In addition, we collect water off the canopy over the refuelling station and use it on our roadworks."

In addition, the Council closely monitors vehicle usage and performance to ensure the early successes continue and to evaluate the best vehicles to run with their new fuel mix.

No Sea Gulls Following Fish and Chip Trucks

Council faced some dubious employees and management who were used to hearing bad stories about biodiesel.

"A few of our guys were worried the seagulls would chase the trucks because we were using some old fish and chip oil, but that didn't happen, so we're okay now." laughs Ferrier.

"We were told by sceptics and those who had taken notice of the stigma of biodiesel to expect more downtime, but our experience over more than two years is that performance is at least as good as 100% fossil fuel diesel."

No Palm Oil - Source of Biodiesel an Issue

CarbonEdge doesn't think anyone ever asks 'where was my fossil fuel sourced', but Ballarat City Council certainly asked where its biodiesel was sourced. Partly this is a modern and improved understanding of the world, but its also an exercise in reputational risk management.

"Council was not prepared to use biodiesel made from palm oil. There's two reasons for that. First, we don't want to contribute to conversion of rainforests and second, palm oil is often grown in replacement for food crops. We don't want to be part of that." Says Ferrier.

Weather Prediction a Biodiesel Challenge

Using biodiesel has presented one challenge for the inland Council where the temperature often falls. Guessing the point at which the ambient temperature gets too low to use the 'summer mix'.

Melanie Ferrier says, "As our first winter approached, we got a cold snap and the ambient temperature dropped so low that our bowser filters were clogging up with the summer mix. So with our supplier's help, we switched over to the winter mix. Now we introduce the winter mix just a little earlier."

CarbonEdge thinks this demonstrates a valuable flexibility. Not only is the biodiesel manufactured from seasonally available biomass, but it can be adjusted to take into account seasonal differences.

For further information contact:

Ballarat City Council
+ 61 3 5320 5500
www.ballarat.vic.gov.au
Biomax Fuels - Smorgon Fuels Pty Ltd
+ 61 3 8360 0600
www.biomaxfuels.com.au

CarbonEdge spoke to Melanie Ferrier, the Fleet Administration Officer for Ballarat City Council at the All Energy Australia Conference conducted in Melbourne on 7th and 8th October 2009.

 

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