Petaluma is latest pit stop on the biodiesel highway

<p>It’s a good thing the new Royal Petroleum biodiesel pump is open 24 hours — for commuters like Mike Yasin, at least.</p><p>Yasin begins his daily drive to San Francisco at 4:15 a.m. each morning, and there’s seldom a line as he fills up at the Royal Pet-roleum station before getting on the Highway 101 onramp at Peta-luma Boulevard South, en route to his job at an investment banking firm.</p><p>This summer, Royal Petroleum replaced its premium unleaded pump with a B99 biodiesel pump, and Yasin couldn’t be happier. Ever since he bought his new Volkswagen Passat TDI about 18 months ago, the Petaluma resident had been driving all the way to Royal’s Santa Rosa location to refuel.</p><p>“It’s local and it’s very easy access,” Yasin said of the new pump. He said he prefers biodiesel because it gives off much lower emissions than regular diesel.</p><p>“And I still get about 35 miles per gallon,” he added.</p><p>Biodiesel is a processed form of vegetable oil that some Petaluma individuals and business are using to supplement or replace standard diesel fuel. It’s one of several alternative vehicle propulsion methods being used today, but is not related to the system used by hybrid vehicles like the Toyota Prius, which run on a combination of regular gas and electric battery power, or electric cars, which run on batteries alone. It’s also distinct from ethanol, which is mixed with standard gasoline in a number of states, and hydrogen fuel cell powered vehicles, which are not yet for sale to consumers.</p><p>In Petaluma, at least two dozen families have begun using the fuel. On the business side, North Bay Construction, V. Dolan Trucking, Clover Stor-netta, Green Waste Manage-ment and Goebel Paving, Grading & Underground have all begun using various concentrations of biodiesel from Royal Petroleum, although they usually get it delivered instead of from the new pump, which is more aimed at servicing regular drivers.</p><p>The Royal Petroleum pump is the first in Petaluma to offer biodiesel, and one of only about 10 North Bay and 60 statewide locations. It is particularly unusual both because it is right off the freeway and because the fuel is offered directly from a traditional pump, 24 hours a day, instead of at a locked limited-hour location.</p><p>Royal Petroleum president Jim Dalton feels that the station is one more step in the building the infrastructure for the fuel system. The new location near the freeway onramp/offramp may already be influencing biodiesel usage.</p><p>“We’ve seen people come from as far as Novato up, we’ve seen people coming from Santa Rosa commuting going down (southbound),” Dalton said. Royal Petroleum is based in Santa Rosa, so its customers now have a public location further south to refuel.</p><p>Those wishing to fill up at the Petaluma station at all hours must have Royal Petroleum accounts. From 5 a.m. to 6 p.m. weekdays, non-members can also get biodiesel by first asking for assistance at the nearby truck scales.</p><p>The Petaluma biodiesel is made from soybeans grown in Iowa. The product is shipped to a refinery near Las Vegas and then to distributors like Royal Petroleum.</p><p>While Dalton recommends B20, or a blend of 20 percent biodiesel mixed with 80 percent diesel, Yasin ran his VW on B99 all last winter with no problems. He credits the additives that Royal is now putting in its biodiesel, which Dalton said is a product from GE Betz called OTR. The additive helps prevent the fuel’s coagulation, a common problem with using biodiesel in cold weather.</p><p>The coagulation problem is why many customers, including drivers of Goebel Paving’s six Ford F250s, still blend B20 in the winter. </p><p>The price of biodiesel is usually a few cents higher or lower than regular diesel, and Royal’s prices are perhaps a few cents higher than average because the company doesn’t supplement its income by selling snacks and sodas. On a single day last week (after the recent spike in oil prices), Royal’s price for biodiesel was $3.69 per gallon, as compared with $3.82 for diesel, and $3.59 for regular unleaded.</p><p>(Contact Dane Golden at argus@arguscourier.com)</p>