ANNE E. PETTINGER (Idaho Falls) Post Register | Posted: Monday, July 25, 2005 12:00 am
DRIGGS, Idaho (AP) - Porter Broughton is selling vegetable oil, but it's not the cooking kind. His customers pump it into their cars and trucks instead of traditional gasoline.
His company, High Road Biodiesel, opened for business recently just outside of Driggs to what Broughton calls a "good amount" of demand. It's one of the few companies in eastern Idaho selling biodiesel, a clean-burning fuel made from vegetable oils.
Broughton is selling the alternative fuel because he believes it's better for the environment and because he finds the country's dependence on oil troubling.
"I've realized how much the oil industry controls the planet," Broughton said. "Eventually, we're going to run out of it."
People can buy biodiesel at stations in West Yellowstone, Mont., and near Jackson, Wyo., but until Broughton's company opened, there wasn't a place in eastern Idaho where consumers could buy it from a pump.
"We have the biggest tank and the first one in Idaho," Broughton said.
People in the area had mixed reactions to the opening of High Road Biodiesel.
Although he hasn't bought fuel from Broughton because he makes his own, Ned Corkran of Tetonia is pleased that Broughton is opening a retail biodiesel pump.
"I definitely support him," Corkran said. "I like the fact that he's introducing (biodiesel) to the region."
Biodiesel is a clean-burning fuel produced from any fat or oil, such as soybean or canola oil, through a refinery process. The United States currently produces about 60 million gallons of biodiesel per year, compared with about 500 million gallons produced in Europe.
Broughton first started thinking about the benefits of biodiesel when his children, now grown, began buying biodiesel in California three years ago.
Broughton recently traded in a petroleum-powered vehicle for a diesel, and last winter, he decided to try selling alternative fuel.
Using biodiesel is attractive for several reasons, said Jon Van Gerpen, head of the Biological and Agricultural Engineering Department at the University of Idaho.
First, biodiesel can power any diesel engine.
"The primary benefit is you don't need to do anything to your engine to use biodiesel," he said.
Biodiesel also boasts lower exhaust emissions, cleaner smoke and a better exhaust smell than regular diesel, Van Gerpen said.
Supporters of biodiesel tout it as a more sustainable resource than petroleum.
"We could go a long way toward solving our energy problems in this country if people used diesel in their cars," Van Gerpen said. He estimates the "veggie fuel" costs about $2.50 per gallon to produce and is taxed at about 45 cents per gallon.
Rising gas prices also mean that biodiesel, which Broughton is selling for $2.89 per gallon, is drawing closer in price to petroleum.
But a drawback to using diesel fuel is that it will gel at colder temperatures. Although a regular diesel gels at about 15 degrees, pure biodiesel gels at about 32 degrees, Van Gerpen said.
Blending the fuel or mixing it with an additive are ways to counteract gelling. Broughton plans to use an additive in the cold months so he can continue selling the "pure" biodiesel when temperatures drop.
Although they don't use pure biodiesel like Broughton sells, both Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks use a biodiesel blend to power park vehicles.
In 2002, Yellowstone workers started using a 20 percent biodiesel blend in their diesel vehicles.
That amounts to more than 200,000 gallons of biodiesel used in more than 300 vehicles in Yellowstone per year, park spokeswoman Cheryl Matthews said.
She said Yellowstone is committed to biodiesel because it reduces waste and pollution. Grand Teton National Park uses the alternative fuel for similar reasons.
"Biodiesel is significantly cleaner than petroleum diesel," said Chris Finlay, chief of facility management for the park. "It results in much lower greenhouse gases and reduces dependence on foreign oil."