Bringing biodiesel to the Spokane market has been like setting up a line of dominos. A lot of careful work goes into putting each piece in place, but when the last one is ready and given a nudge, the show will proceed quickly, say proponents of the environmentally friendly diesel-fuel alternative.


One of those pieces is construction of a biodiesel plant somewhere in Washington state, and that appears to be about to happen, says Jim Armstrong, spokesman for the Spokane County Conservation District and an advocate of an effort to make biodiesel available in Spokane.


Armstrong says that due in part to new state tax incentives, an out-of-state biodiesel manufacturer is expected later this summer to announce plans to build a biodiesel-production plant in Western Washington.


He declines to name the prospective plant operator, but says such a facility would produce about 5 million or 6 million gallons of biodiesel a year and could be operational within a year.


Biodiesel fuels, an alternative to diesel fuel, are made from vegetable oils. Theyre manufactured by removing the triglyceride molecule from vegetable oil through a chemical process. The remaining molecules in the oil are similar to those found in diesel fuel.


Diesel vehicles can burn biodiesel without being modified. Oftentimes, however, to make the fuel cheaper, biodiesel is blended with its petroleum counterparttypically with 80 percent diesel and 20 percent biodiesel, called a B-20 blend.


Either as a blend or in its pure form, biodiesel reduces airborne toxins, carcinogens, and soot associated with petroleum diesel exhaust, Armstrong says.


Armstrong says the plant under consideration in Western Washington likely would use as its feed stock yellow grease recycled from restaurants, but another source of vegetable oil eventually. A facility that would crush oil seeds, such as canola seeds, could be constructed in the Spokane area to serve the new plant, and if demand for the product increased as expected, a production plant could be built here.


The Spokane Area Economic Development Council has requested from the U.S. Economic Development Administration $4 million for development of a biodiesel-production plant here. Armstrong says that request might be amended so that the money would be used to develop an oil-seed crushing facility, which would have an immediate market after the West Side biodiesel production plant opens. The developer and operator of a plant or crushing facility here could be the conservation district, a farmers cooperative, or a private company.


With a biodiesel production plant in place in Western Washington, biodiesel fuel could be brought to Spokane much less expensively than it could be otherwise, Armstrong says. The fuel currently isnt sold in the Spokane area, he says, and to his knowledge, a Ballard, Wash., gas station is the only fuel outlet in the state that offers biodiesel.


Costs associated with transporting the fuel have kept biodiesel out of the Spokane market so far, says Sue LaRue, fuel manager at Banner Fuel & Furnace Inc., of Spokane. Banner has researched offering a biodiesel-blend fuel at its diesel fueling stations here. Late last year, it said it hoped to be offering biodiesel here this year.


LaRue says, however, that biodiesel currently would have to be brought in either from Iowa or California, and shipping costs would make it more expensive than the conventional fuel. Without interstate freight costs, biodiesel would be less expensive than or equivalent in price to conventional diesel, she says.


Some customers might pay more for the diesel alternative on principle, but the price difference makes it a risky proposition to dedicate an established, profitable diesel fueling station to a speculative product like a biodiesel blend.


Were looking at it from all angles, and I know other companies are too, LaRue says. Were waiting for all of the pieces to get into place, then well go for it.


One of the dominos in the biodiesel lineup is demand, which already has surfaced in Spokane.


Kim Zentz, chief executive officer of Spokane Transit Authority, says that the agency plans to use biodiesel in its bus fleet once the fuel is on the market in the Spokane area.


The role were trying to take now is to be as supportive and committed as we can be as an end user, Zentz says.


Don Reimer, STAs maintenance and facility manager, says the agency participated in a biodiesel pilot program over the winter of 1993-1994. Through that program, STA fueled the buses at its Valley facilityabout an eighth of its fleet at that timewith a biodiesel blend. Afterwards, the STA reported a reduction in exhaust thickness and particulate matter, as well as fuel efficiency that was comparable with diesel.


Don Roberson, the city of Spokanes director of fleet services, says hes looked into the use of several types of alternative fuels, and is partial to biodiesel because it doesnt require any modifications to a vehicle, as some other alternative fuels do.


We would prefer to try a demonstration project with a few departments as soon as someone would bring it into the market, Roberson says.


City fleet services oversees maintenance and operation of about 1,100 city vehicles. While many of those take unleaded gas, the city uses equal amounts of gasoline and diesel fuel over the course of a year, Roberson says.


Biodiesel bills


Another biodiesel domino is a cluster of legislative measures enacted this year to help jump-start use of the fuel here.


For biodiesel and alcohol fuel production facilities, House Bill 1240 provides state and local sales and use tax deferrals, property and excise tax exemptions, and business and occupation tax reductions. Under the sales and use tax deferral, those taxes dont have to be paid at all if a facility produces biodiesel for its first seven years.


House Bill 1241 makes the distribution and retail sale of biodiesel and alcohol fuels deductible from the amount of revenue on which business and occupation taxes are calculated and exempt from sales and use tax.


Armstrong says the tax incentive for manufacturers played a role in attracting the prospective biodiesel maker thats evaluating a Western Washington plant.


Another new measure, HB 1242, encourages state agencies to use biodiesel blends and requires that a B-20 blend be used in all diesel-powered state vehicles by June 1, 2006. That bill will help bring the state into compliance with a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency mandate that requires a reduction in 2006 in the amount of allowed sulfur emissions from diesel fuel. Pure biodiesel has no sulfur emissions.


A fourth bill, HB 1243, establishes pilot programs for school buses, and one such program is expected to get under way here this fall.


Central Valley School District and its fuel distributor have agreed to participate in that pilot, and the district could be using a B-20 blend in its buses by the start of the next school year.