Biodiesel Train Gets Test Run in Washington, DC

by Rob Walker | July 3, 2008 at 11:56 am | 164 views | 2 comments

Windpower and biodiesel in Nordfriesland, Germany

Restaurant grease, canola oil and soy are fueling a new generation of trains, with a biodiesel train operating in the UK and a new one taking test runs in Washington over the summer.

The fuel is a 25-per-cent mixture that will hopefully reduce the amount of emissions from long-haul and tanker trains. Eventually the trains will be tested with passengers aboard.

Most railroads have shown a reluctance to use a biodiesel blend in their locomotives, but the Eastern Washington Gateway Railroad has decided to test the concept this summer.
The first biodiesel blend train pulled out of Creston last week, hauling 52 cars of wheat and 500 gallons of biodiesel in the locomotives saddlebag tanks. Officials are using a 25 percent blend of biodiesel in the tests.

The UK's first train to run on biodiesel is going into service as part of an attempt to make rail travel more environmentally friendly.
The Virgin Voyager has been modified to run on eco-friendly fuel and the company is aiming to convert more in the future.

HOUSTON, TEXAS: Nova Biosource Fuels, Inc., a refiner and marketer of ASTM quality biodiesel, has commissioned its second 20 million gallon per year train at its biodiesel refinery in Seneca, Ill., and has produced more than 3 million gallons of ASTM 6751 standard biodiesel fuel from both the first and second 20 million gallon per year trains.

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Paschen

at 12:27 on July 3rd, 2008

good stuff:

Rob Walker, I like this story. It's good stuff. I just hope it does not remain a test run...

Peace Correspondent

at 05:42 on July 4th, 2008

The bright yellow blossoms of the rapeseed plant stretch towards the horizon in this photo. An array of wind turbines churn in the distance can be seen from this snapshot from the window of a NEG passenger train on the line from Niebüll to the small harbor village of Dagebüll, Germany. Rapeseed (Brassica napus) is grown for the production of animal feed, "canola" cooking oil and more extensively in recent years for biodiesel fuel. Germany supplies about 10% of the world's supply of rapeseed. Sales of German biodiesel, made almost exclusively from rapeseed, stood at two billion litres (about 600 million US gallons) in 2006. This amount was sufficient to meet the average yearly consumption of well over 2,000,000 automobiles. In Germany biodiesel is sold at a lower price than fossil diesel fuel. Wind power accounts for about 6% of Germany's electricity production.

Peace Correspondent has contributed a photo to this story.