Seaport Biofuels made history in early February when it installed the first biodiesel blender pump in Washington. The Seattle distributor, which has offered ASTM spec biodiesel to retail consumers and commercial accounts for years, now offers the choice of B20, B50 or B99 with the simple push of a button.
Seaport Vice President of Finance Travis Paulson said sales from the multi-blend biodiesel dispenser have been steadily increasing in the first two weeks of operation. “It’s been a little difficult to get the word out, but I’ve been going out and personally talking to customers, and people are really excited about it,” he said.
The company decided on the three specific blends for several reasons. First, average customers are more willing to use lower blends of biodiesel such as B20. Second, B50 is a good wintertime fuel when B99 would become too thick to run in vehicles. Third, B99 is for customers who want a pure biodiesel. Paulson said customers who use B99 aren’t just fueling vehicles but are also using it for home heating, off-road vehicles and other applications. For the past four years, Seaport has fueled its own fleet of 12 trucks with B99.
Ethanol retailers are required to label ethanol blender pumps with consumer warnings stating that certain blends are intended for flexible-fuel vehicles only. There is no such requirement for biodiesel retailers in Washington, and Paulson doesn’t think there should be. “Our trucks have actually run better,” he said. “When we took them in for emissions testing (after switching to B99), the reports came back so low that we were accused of tampering with the emissions.” Paulson said before the blender pump was installed, customers would often create their own biodiesel blends by filling their tank half-full with diesel and then driving 30 feet to the biodiesel pump to fill the remainder of the tank.
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Paulson believes that Seaport’s biodiesel blender pump is the first retail pump of its kind in the United States. The company isn’t releasing the pump manufacturer’s name, but Paulson said more blender pumps are possible in the near future. He added that the pumps will benefit the average consumers, who are unsure about pure biodiesel and would be more likely to fuel their vehicles with a lower blend if it’s available. Seaport has been working with a few other local biodiesel retailers to provide Seattle consumers with additional biodiesel blender pump locations in the future.
Laurelhurst Oil is one of several retailers offering single-blend biodiesel in the city and wants to install a multi-blend pump. Co-owner Tom Marier said biodiesel blender pumps are a great idea because various consumers want various blends of biodiesel. His company currently has one B99 pump located next to a regular diesel pump, where customers routinely mix the two offerings to create their own blends. He has never had a problem with customer complaints because he said there has never been a problem.
Marier, who is waiting for blender pumps to be offered on the market, thinks more suppliers would install them if they were readily available. “The obvious advantage is that you can just push a button and pick a blend,” he said. “I would still offer diesel so that the odd customer can make their 44.4 percent blend or whatever, if they wanted to.”