Over-the-Road CO₂ Reduction Study with Biodiesel

The National Biodiesel Board has teamed up with Chicago-based Indigenous Energy, LLC, developers of emissions tracking systems, and Los Angeles-based States Logistics, a fleet and logistics company using clean technology, on an over-the-road pilot. The six-month pilot will culminate in a report quantifying States Logistics' emissions and carbon dioxide (CO₂) reduction from using biodiesel, a cleaner burning fuel with a lifecycle CO₂ reduction of 78 percent. So far, results for May and June showed a 16.5 ton reduction in CO₂ emissions.

"The pilot program uses our patent-pending technology and reporting system with inputs from States Logistics over-the-road activity to show carbon and emissions reduction," said Peter Probst, president and director of research & development, Indigenous Energy. "States Logistics is a perfect company to develop the pilot because of their commitment to using biodiesel and the concern of their customers for environmental stewardship."

States Logistics uses B5 and B99 in seven 2007 trucks, running on average approximately 27,000 miles a month. The pilot program takes into account several areas to measure carbon footprint including vehicle type, distance traveled, number of gallons used, percentage of biodiesel used and biodiesel feedstock type, such as soybean oil. The end result is a report on total CO₂ emitted from both the petroleum diesel and biodiesel, CO₂ reduction from using biodiesel and the quantifiable cost to offset petroleum CO₂. The results will be presented at the Mid-America Trucking Show in March.

“Many of our customers on the west coast and other areas of the country are looking to reduce carbon footprint and emissions,” said Ryan Donovan, VP of Operations and Business Development of States Logistics. “Since we use biodiesel in all of our trucks our customers already have an advantage. The type of measurement and easy-to-understand reporting from Indigenous Energy will help us provide detailed information that our customers can show to their customers.”

Eventually, these figures may be used to sell carbon offsets, but today, they can be used to show States Logistics’ customers and their customers’ customers how they are all contributing to reduction of CO₂. By providing this information to customers, they can see the transparency and understand why States Logistics uses biodiesel.

“When we announced the BioTrucker Fuel Card last year at GATS, we thought about next steps for providing value to card holders,” said Tom Verry, Director of Outreach and Development for NBB. “This CO₂ reduction reporting could become a value-add report for fleets to use as a publicity tool for their customers.”

Biodiesel has been shown to have a 1:3.5 ratio of energy gained to energy used to produce it, meaning for every unit of fossil energy needed to produce biodiesel, return is 3.5 units of energy, according to a 2008 study conducted at the University of Idaho in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). A 1998 biodiesel lifecycle study, jointly sponsored by the US Department of Energy and the US Department of Agriculture, showed that biodiesel reduces net CO₂ emissions by 78 percent compared to petroleum diesel.

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