Category: Fuels

  • Biodiesel in Other People’s Equipment

    Here’s a dilema: you’d like to use biodiesel in all your equipment, but you don’t own it all. That leads to the question that rental equipment companies are now apparently faced with (according to an article in the Daily Journal of Commerce): what to do when your rental customer asks if he can use B99?

  • Local Ethanol Refinery in the Works

    The Business Journal is reporting that ground has been broken for an Ethanol plant in in Longview. Production is still 18 months away. Time to buy Oregon corn futures?

  • Clean[er] Coal?

    The Daily Journal of Commerce is reporting that some environmental groups are not buying into the idea that “coal gasification combined cycle (IGCC) power plants” are a good idea. Apparently a couple of these plants are on the boards in Washington State. How clean is coal? IGCC plants – based on a new energy technology…

  • More Biodiesel Applications

    Willamette Week is reporting (“Day Tripper“) that “Shared Route” is now operating a slightly hippy-looking biodiesel shuttle from Portland to Seattle. At the same time, the Daily Journal of Commerce reports that contractors are slowing slowly switching to biodiesel for their heavy equipment.

  • The Fleet Replacement Problem

    Jim Mayer has an interesting piece in yesterday’s O about particulate emissions from diesel, especially off-road equipment. The interesting part to me is how long it takes to replace the installed base of equipment: …thanks to slow turnover, the health benefits from the new standards won’t be realized until 2030. This is referencing rules that…