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They’re not exactly the most environmentally-friendly mechanisms out there, but recreational vehicles… RVs… are moving to greener fuels.

This article in the Bend (Oregon) Bulletin says while hybrid motors may not be coming up, biodiesel is certainly gaining popularity:

Ty Adams, a 28-year-old freelance journalist and green RV activist from Bozeman, Mont., has spent the past nine months on the road. He’s hit 24 states and put 18,000 miles on his multicolored Monaco, also known as the bioTrekker.

“Every RVer I’ve met is concerned about the future and the environment,” Adams said. “They are touring state parks and getting into nature and places that are enhanced by a pristine environment, so they are very aware.”

Adams says while only about five percent of RVers use biodiesel, 40 percent say they have heard of it. He also believes that manufacturers need to be convinced as well.

Check out Adams’ blog at biotrekker.blogspot.com/.

You probably think of the Deep South, such as Georgia and Alabama, when you think of peanuts, but a farmer and a researcher from Washington State Univesity are looking to grow goobers in the Pacific Northwest to make into biodiesel.

This article in the Seattle (WA) Post Intelligencer says Steve Price’s venture is picking up steam:

Price has been growing dry beans in the area about 30 miles north of Eastern Washington’s Tri-Cities since the 1980s. He planted about 25 acres of peanuts last year, just to see if he could grow them.

“When I started this I thought my background in dry edible beans would be a plus,” Price said. “But I found out I don’t know anything about peanuts.”

Price ran into some problems, such as not having peanut harvesting equipment. In addition, dry bean processing plants didn’t want to handle the peanuts because of the allergy problems. But despite that, he had some success growing the legumes, getting 5,000 pounds an acre… when the national average is only 3,300.

Price’s initiative impressed Tim Waters, a WSU extension educator based in Pasco. He and another professor for WSU’s crop and soil sciences program began working with Price and helping where they could.

“We can do this and study the potential to see if this is something that is feasible for growers so they don’t have to take the risk,” Waters said.

This year’s crop looks even better than last year. And, if you remember my July 31st post, researchers back in Georgia are developing a type of peanut ideal for biodiesel. Hopefully, they’ll share their information with the peanut-biodiesel far off to the north.

New York City-based Tri-State Biodiesel has put out a call for people to join its Bio-NYC campaign… an effort to encourage New Yorkers to buy more biodiesel, especially that sold by the company, made from used restaurant cooking oil.

This is from an e-mail that came into Domestic Fuel:

HERE¹S WHAT YOU CAN DO TO HELP:

– Buy a diesel vehicle and fill it with biodiesel.

– The more requests they get, the more results we’ll see!

Of course, this is a company that has a vested interest in the large New York market buying its product. But if they can get that tough New York crowd on their side, then it’s got to be good for the industry as a whole.

Check out the web site at www.nycTriStateBiodiesel.com.