Clean Fuels Ohio Biodiesel Fleet Success Stories Interviews
June 2024
Clean Fuels Ohio (CFO) is a statewide non-profit organization and U.S. Department of Energy designated Clean Cities coalition in Ohio whose mission is to advance clean transportation and energy. CFO reached out to fleet managers/supervisors in Ohio that are users of biodiesel, an alternative fuel, to document and share accomplishments as part of our Biodiesel Fleet Success Stories. We were able to connect with and hear back from four specific fleets with an accomplished history of biodiesel vehicle and fuel usage efforts that led to them being certified as an Ohio Green Fleet.
These interviews were made possible through the support of the Ohio Soybean Council (OSC). Thank you to the OSC, the four biodiesel fleets, and other leaders in the biodiesel industry for your help in shaping Ohio’s leadership in alternative fuel success.
The Ohio State University
Interview with John Marlow, Associate Director, Vehicle and Equipment Maintenance with Transportation and Traffic Management at The State University
How long has your fleet been using/operating biodiesel vehicles? We began using B20 biodiesel in our transit buses during the summer of 2003, and fully transitioned the remainder of the Columbus based diesel fleet in 2006.
How many vehicles and what types of vehicles in your fleet use biodiesel? We currently have 79 vehicles in our fleet that can be fueled by biodiesel consisting of pickup trucks, box trucks, transit buses, road coaches, refuse trucks, street sweeper, cab and chassis trucks, step vans, stake body trucks, class 8 tractor, bucket truck, vacuum/jet truck, mobile demonstration kitchen truck and mobile health coaches.
Why did your fleet make the switch/start to use biodiesel vehicles in its operations? This was a pilot project in partnership with The College of Food, Agriculture and Environmental Science and The Ohio Soybean Council to promote Ohio grown soy products. We also recognized it was the right thing to do and it helps promote the clean air initiatives for central Ohio.
What items did your fleet decision makers have to consider for a switch to a biodiesel fueled fleet operation as compared to conventional petroleum-based diesel? Our primary concern at the time was the deterioration effect biodiesel had on natural rubber seals that were present in our older vehicles. Also, there were costs to be considered knowing the fuel was more expensive and the potential for increased maintenance cost to address seal failures. Aside from cost, the potential for downtime to address maintenance items had to be included in the decision-making process.
What fueling infrastructure did your fleet have to install or which fueling provider did your fleet have to work with to ensure the best supply of biodiesel fuel for your vehicles and the rate at which they are fueling? Changes were not needed to our fueling infrastructure as we already had on-site fuel storage and dispensing equipment. However, we did have our underground storage tank cleaned and changed the filter on the system to help alleviate filter clogging downstream of the fuel dispenser. Biodiesel has excellent cleaning properties, and taking this measure helped reduce debris that would have been dislodged and ultimately made its way into vehicle fuel tanks.
Given your fleet’s experience using vehicles powered by biodiesel, what do you think are the major technological challenges or impediments of such vehicles? There are essentially no technological challenges with modern diesel power vehicles that would prevent using the fuel, and most engine manufacturers of on road vehicles certify using blends of biodiesel up to B20.
Apart from biodiesel, what other alternative fuels do you currently use or plan to use that will drive Ohio’s transportation decarbonization future? In addition to B20 biodiesel, the university operates all electric vehicles, hybrid electric vehicles, plug in hybrid electric vehicles, and compressed natural gas-powered vehicles.
Is there anything else you would like to add regarding your fleet’s accomplishments and impacts due to the use of biodiesel vehicles (and other AFVs)? The use of B20 supports university sustainability goals and specifically our work to reduce the carbon footprint of the university fleet.
As a user of biodiesel fuel, can you explain the various advantages/benefits and challenges of biodiesel over conventional diesel in your specific fleet operations? The main advantage from our perspective is the reduction in greenhouse gas emissions over conventional diesel. Fuel costs are always a factor in our planning efforts. We also know that B20 will gel and clog filters at higher temperatures. However, we’re fortunate that our climate in central Ohio doesn’t cause too much concern for cold weather, but it must be considered during unusual weather events.
Franklin County Engineers
Interview with Jordan Davidson, Fleet Superintendent
How long has your fleet been using/operating biodiesel vehicles? We’ve been using biodiesel vehicles since 2019, initially starting out with B10 and have made the switch to B20 at the beginning of 2021 for all vehicles year round.
How many vehicles and what types of vehicles in your fleet use biodiesel? We have about five one-ton dump trucks, forty snowplow trucks, fifteen medium-/heavy-duty equipment, and twenty John Deere tractors. The fleet has a total of 200 over-the-road vehicles and 450 pieces of equipment.
Why did your fleet make the switch/start to use biodiesel vehicles in its operations? At the time, we understood there was an initiative to go greener and making the switch to biodiesel was an easy switch – there wasn’t a whole lot of infrastructure to change. To us, it seemed like the right and easy direction to go to – almost like a light switch move
As a user of biodiesel fuel, can you explain the various advantages/benefits and challenges of biodiesel over conventional diesel in your specific fleet operations? Overall, the advantage of having biodiesel is relatively good and we haven’t had many issues with it. The advantage is that it’s a cleaner fuel and better for the environment. We’re receiving a 10-15% reduction in particulate matter, hydrocarbons, and carbon dioxide – the emissions reduction is a major advantage for us. The other advantage was not having to make a huge infrastructure switch. Thanks to our supplier, Benchmark Biodiesel, we also didn’t have to change out the filters often when we switched over to biodiesel. With the disadvantages, I’m not sure I see much of them other than seeing as good of a fuel mileage but it’s not big enough to really notice. Another positive impact is that using the biodiesel feeds back into the state and local economy.
What fueling infrastructure did your fleet have to install or which fueling provider did your fleet have to work with to ensure the best supply of biodiesel fuel for your vehicles and the rate at which they are fueling? Since we actually own three of our fuel sites, when we switched over to biodiesel, it was pretty plug and play. Benchmark Biodiesel dispensed the biodiesel and switched out the nozzles which didn’t take much to do. Overall, our supplier gave us a good security blanket when we made that fuel dispensing switch, and it made it very easy for us.
Given your fleet’s experience using vehicles powered by biodiesel, what do you think are the major technological challenges or impediments of such vehicles? There’s not a whole out we had to worry about with the technology when we switched to biodiesel. I think it will remain a huge contender and the technology won’t fade away even with new engines coming out onto the market. The biodiesel fueling infrastructure is still a lot more available and reliable compared to other fuels like hydrogen. The fact that we use biodiesel, and it plays a big part with the longevity of the fueling infrastructure, I think it will stay longer than some other alternative fuels.
Apart from biodiesel, what other alternative fuels do you currently use or plan to use that will drive Ohio’s transportation decarbonization future? We have several hybrid and plug-in hybrid vehicles and one electric vehicle in the fleet. We also use liquid propane for our forklifts and some of the small equipment. In the future, we plan to potentially have more plug-in hybrid vehicles since the efficiency and distance purpose rides make plenty of sense for the applications. Hydrogen is something we’ve been exploring as well. We’re excited to see what technologies come out next to fit our needs.
Is there anything else you would like to add regarding your fleet’s accomplishments and impacts due to the use of biodiesel vehicles (and other AFVs)? We are also a reseller of biodiesel to different municipalities, so we think it’s a good product and stand behind it enough to try to encourage people to go this route since it’s such an easy fix to the environmental decarbonization of petroleum-based diesel. pretty solid when it comes to how the engines and vehicles perform when switching to biodiesel. We’re also pretty encouraged by the changes that the industry is making as far as cleaner fuels that hopefully benefits the needs we have as a large county with a large fleet having to drive all over the place.
What items did your fleet decision makers have to consider for a switch to a biodiesel fueled fleet operation as compared to conventional petroleum-based diesel? The thing we considered the most was the positive impact on the environment. Other things we had to consider were loss of power but thankfully we didn’t really see a lack of performance in our diesel trucks when we started using the B10 fuel. Another thing we considered was having to change out the fuel filters when switching from petroleum and pump diesel to biodiesel (but we didn’t have to deal with that, and the switch was relatively simple).
Solid Waste Authority of Central Ohio
Interview with Dean Headley, Fleet Manager
How long has your fleet been using/operating biodiesel vehicles? We’ve been using biodiesel for over twelve years, and we use B5 biodiesel from Benchmark Biodiesel for fleet truck and landfill operations across all equipment and tractor trailers.
How many vehicles and what types of vehicles in your fleet use biodiesel? There are thirty tractor trailers and about forty-four pieces of heavy equipment like dozers, compactors, haul trucks, graders, excavators, water trucks (consisting of brands Caterpillar, Volvo, John Deere, and others). SWACO uses around 750,000 gallons of biodiesel annually.
Why did your fleet make the switch/start to use biodiesel vehicles in its operations? Sustainability was and is still at the forefront so that’s why we want to keep proceeding with more alternative fuels expanding into our new batch of trucks that we purchase. Stepping into the biodiesel fuel world was our first step into going green.
As a user of biodiesel fuel, can you explain the various advantages/benefits and challenges of biodiesel over conventional diesel in your specific fleet operations? For biodiesel, the main advantage and benefit is the reduction of our carbon footprint as far as it being part of the decision for us to start going down the green path. As far as disadvantage, some of the equipment has a disadvantage running it, but now with the newer emissions on the newer equipment, it struggles a little bit. We bought some new equipment and had to triple check and get the manufacturer’s operation and maintenance manual to give us self-approval to run the biodiesel in it which at the end of the day is a fairly easy process. Benchmark Biodiesel, who supplies us with B5 biodiesel, have also been very helpful with answering any questions we have.
What fueling infrastructure did your fleet have to install or which fueling provider did your fleet have to work with to ensure the best supply of biodiesel fuel for your vehicles and the rate at which they are fueling? SWACO has its own tanks and fueling systems. When we order fuel, they come twice a week with a tanker trunk that fuels up the tanks. Overall, we have 30,000 gallons of tanks on hand at our fueling sites.
Given your fleet’s experience using vehicles powered by biodiesel, what do you think are the major technological challenges or impediments of such vehicles? Biodiesel still has so many advantages at the end of the day. We are still going to be a larger user of biodiesel even if we start to transition more to of our fleet to other fuels like compressed natural gas.
Apart from biodiesel, what other alternative fuels do you currently use or plan to use that will drive Ohio’s transportation decarbonization future? We currently use compressed natural gas in our three Peterbilt tractors and three recycling hauling trucks. Since we also produce the RNG at our landfills, we’d like to potentially source it into the pipeline and other fueling systems to be future a closed loop system of energy production and distribution.
Is there anything else you would like to add regarding your fleet’s accomplishments and impacts due to the use of biodiesel vehicles (and other AFVs)? Everything has been running smoothly so are proud to be using it and have been long users of it in Ohio.
What items did your fleet decision makers have to consider for a switch to a biodiesel fueled fleet operation as compared to conventional petroleum-based diesel? SWACO recommends other fleets to team up and work with a good partner like Benchmark Biodiesel to build the support, availability, and communications with a supplier who is instrumental in supplying biodiesel fuel on a weekly basis. It’s also good to look at the history of the partners and find somebody who has the references and has checked their references.
City of Dublin
Interview with John Hyatt, Fleet Manager
How long has your fleet been using/operating biodiesel vehicles? We’ve been using biodiesel for over ten years and use B10 biodiesel year-round from Central Farmers Co-Op. It’s been really good for us. The Dublin City School System also runs about 150 school buses on biodiesel.
How many vehicles and what types of vehicles in your fleet use biodiesel? Between the city and the schools, there are two hundred ninety-nine pieces of equipment that run on diesel and biodiesel fuel. We dispensed 215,608 gallons of biodiesel fuel last year, in which around 14,000 gallons was used by the city and the rest of it was used by the schools. The firetrucks also run on biodiesel.
Why did your fleet make the switch/start to use biodiesel vehicles in its operations? We attended several conferences where we learned about the environmental and performance benefits of using biodiesel. We also met suppliers that recommended going with the B10 biodiesel, especially with not having to face any problems in the winter season which we have not. With the old diesel trucks, we were handling and changing fuel fillers every couple of weeks which got really dirty. When we switched to biodiesel, the additives kept our tanks clean, and we could really tell it broke all that stuff loose. The biodiesel will last longer at the end of the day especially on a cold winter day.
What fueling infrastructure did your fleet have to install or which fueling provider did your fleet have to work with to ensure the best supply of biodiesel fuel for your vehicles and the rate at which they are fueling? The Central Farmers Co-Op comes a couple times a week during the school season to fuel our city fueling sites. We have two ten-thousand-gallon tanks and have our own CNG fueling facility as well for 62 vehicles. Most of the time, we will hardly use any in the summer and only mainly for chippers and leaf machines.
Given your fleet’s experience using vehicles powered by biodiesel, what do you think are the major technological challenges or impediments of such vehicles? For us, it’s really only the particulate filters we have to change whenever we buy our new clean diesel trucks and equipment that will start to use the B10 biodiesel.
Apart from biodiesel, what other alternative fuels do you currently use or plan to use that will drive Ohio’s transportation decarbonization future? We run 62 compressed natural gas vehicles and have our own CNG fueling facility at the fleet department. We also have 13 electric vehicles. We would love to explore hydrogen in the future.
