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Unfortunately B-5 is the only blend available in No. Nevada. And you have to be a member of a local fueling network to get it. But I'm hoping that the more people that use it, the easier it will be to get. Of course with bad press like this, people who would use it might get scared off:
Biodiesel blamed for clogs
Truckers seek waiver of mandate as refiner stops sale of some blends
BY TOM WEBB
Pioneer Press
Truckers are fuming, fuel filters are clogging and accusations are flying over biodiesel, the soybean-based fuel that Minnesota law now requires blended into all diesel sold here.
Minnesota's trucking industry has asked Gov. Tim Pawlenty for an emergency waiver of the state's 2-month-old biodiesel mandate. And Minnesota's largest refiner, Flint Hills Resources in Rosemount, this week quit delivering certain cold-weather biodiesel blends for greater Minnesota.
State officials are considering emergency action. But first, they need to know what's really clogging fuel filters across Minnesota.
"We have members that are going ballistic over this," said John Hausladen, president of the Minnesota Trucking Association, on Thursday. "Now, we do not know for certain that it is the biodiesel causing the problem, and we are trying to make sure that we have our data. But all the evidence we have gathered points to biodiesel being the culprit."
Bruce Gordon, with the Minnesota Department of Commerce, said, "We have received complaints that fuel filters are reportedly clogging, especially in colder weather, and we know that not everyone is experiencing the problem."
"There's not an obvious cause of the problem, nor is there a simple answer," Gordon added. "Some are speculating that the problem is caused by the biodiesel portion of the fuel, but we don't know that for sure."
A battery of state-sponsored tests is under way. Initial results on 18 samples showed "four samples that failed a cold-weather test, but it does not say what is the cause of that failure," Gordon said Thursday. That will require more extensive tests, with results in a week or two.
But the state's trucking group isn't eager to wait. It surveyed 90 of its members, and 56 reported problems with plugged fuel filters, Hausladen said.
John Hofland, a spokesman for Flint Hills Resources, which refines half of Minnesota's gasoline and diesel fuel, said that as complaints surfaced, the Rosemount refinery ran its own tests and made a discovery.
"What we believe is occurring is that some of the biodiesel is fairly high in glycerin, which is a saturated fatty acid, essentially," Hofland said. "At certain glycerin levels, there appears to be a waxy substance forming at temperatures of zero to minus-10. What we've determined is, if we use a biodiesel that's lower in glycerin, we don't see this problem in colder weather."
As a result, on Wednesday Flint Hills quit using soybean-based biodiesel, and switched to a biodiesel with far lower glycerin levels. But it also stopped distributing certain biodiesel-blended fuels around greater Minnesota, because it wasn't confident of the fuel's performance.
The episode has stunned Minnesota's soybean growers, who have spent the week scrambling for technical advice. They envisioned biodiesel as a clean, green alternative fuel that would deliver rich benefits, and worked to make Minnesota the first — and only — state to require a biodiesel blend in every gallon of diesel sold.
But now, farm groups are willing to have state officials waive the law temporarily, if it would get to the bottom of the problem. Minnesota is the nation's leading biodiesel producer.
"We are going to continue to support the Minnesota Department of Commerce in whatever they do, to get the problem solved and fixed," said Sherry Lowe, a spokeswoman for the Minnesota Soybean Growers Association.
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2005 Limited CRD
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