From the farm to the road - biodiesel. Are you using it?
As you know, planting is in full swing, and with it there are a lot of farmers using soy biodiesel in their equipment to get the job done. It’s an exciting thought that the very soybeans being planted now will later become the fuel powering our equipment doing the planting. So, are you using soy biodiesel? If not, you should give it some serious thought because the benefits go full circle.
We grow the beans, harvest them, crush them, produce biodiesel from them and use the fuel to plant more beans the next year. Biodiesel usage among farmers has increased from 23 percent in 2002 to 50 percent in 2007, according to a recent checkoff-funded survey. Many of us in that 50 percent ordered soy biodiesel in advance, and now it’s in trucks, tractors, planters — basically, all of our diesel-powered equipment right now. Increased usage has increased availability.
Besides its renewable benefit, soy biodiesel increases fuel lubricity and has a higher cetane number than most petroleum diesel, which can improve performance through smoother operation. A biodiesel blend of B2, just 2 percent biodiesel blended with 98 percent petroleum diesel, can increase fuel lubricity by as much 66 percent. Increased lubricity allows for less maintenance and longer engine life, and you don’t have to modify your engine to run on biodiesel. Better performance — yet another reason to use soy biodiesel.
In some areas, biodiesel blends are available at the pump. More and more fuel distributors and retailers offer biodiesel due to increases in demand from farmers and general diesel users. The National Biodiesel Board has biodiesel retail listings by state on its Web site, biodiesel.org. Ask for it and use it, if not for planting, then for harvesting and all your needs in between — you’ve got time to get it by then.
Think about this, an estimated 225 million gallons of biodiesel were sold in 2006. The year before that, estimates were 75 million gallons. Now you can really see the demand increase. Wouldn’t it be great to see the day when 100 percent of soybean farmers are using biodiesel? As farmers, we all should be using the very fuel we supply the oil for. In Illinois, you shouldn’t have any trouble finding it. NBB has 196 biodiesel distributors and 127 biodiesel retailers in Illinois listed on their Web site. Check with yours and see if they offer biodiesel, and if they do, order some.
Soy biodiesel success goes beyond the farm, too. Usage continues to steadily increase among truckers. In fact, if every trucker used just B2, we could utilize the soybean oil from 507 million bushels of soybeans annually. In addition, Original Equipment Manufacturers such as New Holland, Cummins, Case IH, Caterpillar, DaimlerChrysler and John Deere, all endorse biodiesel blends. In fact, John Deere uses B2 as its factory fill in all new diesel powered equipment, and DaimlerChrysler uses B5 as the factory fill for its diesel powered 2007 Jeep Grand Cherokee. Biodiesel has definitely moved from the field to the road, and the trend continues as demand for renewable fuels keeps going up.
Now, are you seeing the full circle and the demand? As the nation searches for more ways to become less dependent on foreign oil and produce more of our own renewable fuels, we have the opportunity to rise to the challenge. By growing the very soybeans used to produce biodiesel, we are helping, but by using the biodiesel ourselves, we are showing the nation that biodiesel is a viable product that’s here to stay.
To date, half of all soybean farmers are using biodiesel in their operations. For the other half, what are you waiting for? Availability in our state is no longer an excuse, and quality controls are in place that help ensure we’re getting a good product. So, if you haven’t placed your order or filled up yet, do so. After all, by every farmer using soy biodiesel we are showing everyone else that uses diesel that we believe in, and fully support, our own homegrown renewable fuel.
Sharon Covert is the Illinois director for the United Soybean Board.
