GATINEAU, Que. – Trucking firms continue to lobby against a pending federal mandate that would require all diesel fuel in Canada to contain two percent biodiesel by 2012.
A new report paid for by the trucking industry says a host of problems surround the storage, blending and transportation of the alternative fuel.
“It is essential that the issues identified in the report are dealt with prior to the implementation of the biodiesel mandate,” said David Bradley, chief executive officer of the Canadian Trucking Alliance.
“This will take extensive multilateral planning with all stakeholders including the customer, which in this case is the trucking industry.”
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Ian Thomson, president of Canadian Bioenergy Corporation, Western Canada’s leading supplier of biodiesel, is growing weary of the continuing objections from the alliance.
Biodiesel was already given a thorough going over in the Alberta Renewable Diesel Demonstration managed by Climate Change Central.
“The trial has gone successfully in every regard,” said Thomson.
The demonstration included a lab testing phase and the largest cold-weather, on-road test of a two percent biodiesel blend.
A fleet of 70 trucks tested the fuel in temperatures that dropped as low as -44 C with no reports of filter problems, fuel gelling or starting troubles.
A similar over-the-road demonstration by Kyoto Fuels Corp. and JK Trucking on a 10 percent bio-diesel blend has come to the same conclusion halfway through the project.
“Given that, it surprised a number of people, not only in the bio-diesel industry but also in government, that the CTA was back,” said Thomson, referring to the latest objection.
According to the CTA-sponsored report prepared by MJ Ervin & Associates of Calgary, a number of important issues remain unresolved.
Dedicated heated storage tanks would have to be built in a number of regions, new blending equipment needs to be installed at Canadian terminals and there would be a greater reliance on insulated tanker trucks, rail cars or marine tankers for the transport of biodiesel.
Bradley cited poor preparation, planning and communication on these issues and said the trucking industry needs more assurance before it endorses a mandated biodiesel blend.
Thomson said the issues identified in the report are not the concern of the trucking industry.
“All of the questions they have are the purview of the petroleum industry.”
And the oil companies know full well how to blend, store and transport biodiesel.
“There are hundreds of high-speed blending terminals in the United States and Europe that blend millions of litres of biodiesel every day,” he said.
The latest report by the CTA proves the industry is not up to speed on technical issues and is unwilling to work together toward solutions, said Thomson.
“It left people who actually know about this stuff kind of scratching their head and saying, ‘This is a non-report.'”
The behaviour of the CTA is in contrast to the American Trucking Association, which has endorsed the use of up to a five percent biodiesel blend and has worked hand-in-hand with the U.S. biodiesel industry on a number of fronts.
“It’s a different relationship,” said Thomson.
