Lon Baylor’s experience with biodiesel buses has had it ups and downs.
But this corporate transit manager says he is ready for the next big step. His firm, Bauer’s Worldwide Transportation of San Francisco, will abandon the 80 percent, 20 percent blend of conventional biodiesel it is using today (if there is such a thing as conventional biodiesel) for a 100 percent biodiesel concoction derived from algae.
The transition may make the Bauer’s the first algae-fuel coach line in the country. Certainly the bus will become a showpiece in a city pushing forward the frontier of green living.
Baylor, whose job it is to find alternative energy equipment for the bus company, anticipates having the algae bus in service next year. He won’t name his fuel supplier. But he calculates the project will have a 4-year investment return, not bad for an effort so new.
The bus's solar panels run an air conditioning system and free drivers from idling their engines to keep the coach cool.
He says this “second generation” biodiesel motor will have some important benefits. The company’s current biodiesel fuel clogs the bus’s ammonia-based catalytic converter, even with a 20 percent biodiesel mixture.
The new business will no longer need a catalytic converter, which takes diesel particulate out of the exhaust, since it no longer burns fossil fuels.
But he acknowledges the second-generation bus may not solve all the difficulties that come with running biodiesel. Bauer’s present biodiesel clogs fuel filters and causes the bus’s turbo drive to run hot. It also gets lower fuel economy, which the company has tried to compensate for by installing a 12-speed automatic transmission.
Bauer’s says it has had to apply for a special extension of the manufacturer’s warranty due to its use of biodiesel.
But all this has not caused it to shrink from biodiesel, despite the extra maintenance. The company has log 5 million miles with the fuel and felt comfortable enough to invest in a complementary set of rooftop solar panels.
The 12 panels perform an important function, says Baylor. Buses idle 40 to 60 percent of the time, largely to keep their air conditioning systems running, Now the solar panels can take over the job, permitting drivers to turn off their engines. Fuel mileage goes up and the air is cleaner.
The problem, says Baylor, is that the solar power air conditioning equipment is still going through troubleshooting, and bolts and latches shake loose with travel.
Nothing is built for (an alternative-energy) bus,” he says. At least not yet.
[...] Solar Powered Biodiesel Bus To Use 100% Algae Fuel « TechPulse 360 [...]
Great post. Who is supplying the algae diesel to run the bus?? What company?
Would like to know. Give the article more creditability.
Regards,
Chemically Green
Awesome page, I share the same views. I wonder why this amazing entire world truly does not believe like me personally together with the website founder
algae fuel and jatropha biodiesel both have a very promissing future!
Thank you for your article. There are a lot of sites out there that don’t make as much sense about solar power, so that’s refreshing. I’ve made a note of your site details and will visit again.
Great post, thanks for sharing it. I feel like I’ll try to follow as many of this as possible with my next blog.
As a Bauer’s driver who has driven and fueled numerous Bauer’s buses, I have never put anything other than ordinary #2 diesel fuel in these buses. Though biodiesel is a purchase option at many stations, every other driver I have seen fueling at the fueling stations, as my self, fueld with regular diesel, not biodiesel. I was issued a CFN fuel card to fuel the buses, and I have stopped at various truck/fueling stops to do so, always using the same ordinary #2 diesel– the same stuff virtually all the grossly-polluting big rigs run on. Bauer’s makes many “green” claims, so to prove the veracity of its representations to the press and the well-meaning “green” market, it should invite an auditing firm in to verify the “green” claims it is constantly making. Among the things it should invite to be audited are: exactly how many and what percentage of its buses have anything other than ordinary diesel engines; the maintenance records of any bus it claims has had mechanical alterations to be operated on biodiesel; any records it has for emmissions tests that have been done on the buses.
Regarding solar-powered air conditioning systems: air conditioners on buses typically run on compressors powered by engine-driven belts. If Bauer’s has altered the buses to have solar air conditioners, it should be eager for third-party auditors to verify this as well.
Regarding “a” special 12-speed transmission installation: is their claim that they installed more than one in the fleet? If so, have the auditor verify it.
Come on, Bauer, show us all how honest you are and call in the auditors!