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A $125,000 grant will help fund a project that studies biodiesel in train engines.

Biodiesel Magazine reports the Montana Department of Environmental Quality award for Opportunity Link, a Havre, Mont.-based economic development agency, includes the evaluation of B20 in a Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway engine:

“We are supportive of environmental initiatives to identify alternative fuel sources and opportunities to reduce emissions,” said BNSF spokesman Gus Melonas.

The evaluation portion of the project is slated to run for one year. Staff at Montana State University Northern’s Bioenergy Center will test the B20 fuel, track how much is used, how it’s mixed, Stiffarm said. “At the end of each 90 day period, they will completely dismantle those engines and send them to their research and development [department] and have their engineers go through and check the filters and check the cylinders for any differences. Hopefully we are going to show that the biofuel is actually serving as a lubricant and is easier on the engines.”

If the test is successful, it could be quite lucrative in the biodiesel market. BNSF uses 70,000 to 80,000 gallons of diesel each day at each of its filling stations. The B20 will be tested in temps ranging from 100 degrees Fahrenheit in the summer to nearly minus 70 in the winter.

Some new clean air regulations in California could lead to a popular ferry shutting down. But it might not have to if the vessel uses biodiesel.

This article from the Daily Pilot says the Catalina Flyer, a 500-passenger catamaran that runs between the mainland and Santa Catalina Island could have to shut down while the owners buy and install a new engine in line with the state’s environmental law. But it doesn’t have to be that way:

Bob Black, general manager for the tour boat company, said that unless he’s able to find a catamaran to lease, he may suspend service to Avalon as early as Sept. 12.

Although the new law seems like it is three years old, it didn’t actually go into effect until 2009, which is why the Catalina Flyer is having to search for a replacement boat until the new engines are bought and installed.

But later on in the article, it’s pointed out that “[a]ll diesel engines on commercial harbor craft must be fueled with California Air Resource Board diesel fuel, with a sulfur content less than or equal to 15 parts per million, or an alternative diesel fuel such as biodiesel.”

So what gives? Are Californians so opposed to biofuels (note the state’s fighting of the use of ethanol instead of MTBE as an anti-pollution additive for gasoline) that they’ll lay off workers instead of using biodiesel … which will run in any current engine that runs on diesel … that might just burn clean enough to meet regulations? I’ll need to investigate this further, and maybe, in the meantime, someone can come up with an explanation.

Columbia, South Carolina is the latest municipality that is getting waste grease out of its sewer system and into its vehicles in the form of biodiesel.

The Columbia Free Times says the city has set up a system to collect residents’ used cooking oil and use it in a trash truck:

When restaurants need to get rid of used cooking oil, they can usually donate or sell it to companies that convert it into fuel. Columbia’s backyard chefs, on the other hand, have had to throw away their oil — the Thanksgiving turkey-frying oil; the used oil from family fish frys; the gallons and gallons of oil it takes to perfect a fried chicken recipe or the world’s best raw fries.

“The containers are an investment,” Spence says.

The city will use a B20 blend of this waste grease biodiesel for the garbage truck and could use it in other equipment. Columbia’s fleet of other diesel vehicles is already running on B5.

In addition, the city says it spends $1.5 million a year dealing with grease, mostly from residents and not restaurants, in its sewer lines. Officials hope this will cut those costs down significantly.