Bioeconomy Institute

Managing Early Adoption of Biodiesel by Commercial Fleets

Commercial carriers are being confronted with a variety of decisions regarding long-term petroleum dependency and near-term state and federal policies aimed at increasing the use and content of biodiesel. Increasing market prices for petro-diesel, compounded by mandates to use low sulfur fuels by 2007, and recent experiences in Minnesota (where 2% biodiesel blends were found to cause fuel filters to plug) are complicating fleet decisions on when and how to integrate biodiesel over the next couple of years. As a result, the Iowa Motor Truck Association has engaged a coalition of Iowa based fleets to jointly study the use of biodiesel in commercial service for one year, and to identify strategies for managing early adoption. The focus of this project is to support this initiative by helping fleets interpret field data in the context of cost/benefit, fuel economy, variations in maintenance, seasonal performance, and identifying problem solving strategies.

Prinicipal Investigator:

Song-Charng Kong, Iowa State University

Participating and/or Sponsoring Organizations:

Midwest Transportation Consortium at Iowa State University