Biodiesel is making it where the old saying goes, “Will it play in Peoria?” That certainly is the case for the Illinois town’s transit system, CityLink.
This story from the Peoria Journal Star says the city has been so pleased with the past performance of lower biodiesel blends, they decided to become the first fleet in the state to go to B20 to help extend the life of their aging buses:
“Biodiesel has been good for us. The engine makes more power (using biodiesel) and there’s less smoke out of the exhaust,” said CityLink maintenance director John Anderson of a B-20 program that involves 58 buses and 21 paratransit vehicles.
Peoria’s transit district ran buses on B-11, an 11 percent biodiesel blend, in 2007 and 2008 but decided last year to increase the amount of vegetable oil in their fuel as part of “a green mandate,” said Anderson.
“(Assistant manager) Rick Tieken and I sat down last year to see what we could do. We’ve gone green as a facility on just about everything,” he said, referring to environmentally friendly products such as degreasers and soaps now used by CityLink.
Peoria is even buying the soybean-based biodiesel from a local supplier to help keep the money close to home.