Fleets
The Medford, NJ school system
originally switched its bus and
vehicle fleet to a B20 biodiesel
blend in 1997 in the pursuit of
emissions reduction and the
fuel has delivered beyond expectations,
according to Joe Biluck, who recently
retired as Director of Operations and
Technology.
As the longest-running user of biodiesel
among school districts nationwide,
Medford has experienced direct
improvements in fleet operations as well
as many indirect benefits. The district has
built goodwill in the community, created
learning opportunities for students,
bolstered pride among district staff,
and even become a better magnet for
educational talent.
The journey to biodiesel was long and
circuitous. The genesis was Biluck’s pursuit
in 1990 of new ideas to improve fleet
operations, starting with a system that
would reduce the time spent changing
the oil in the school’s buses. This led him
to a motor oil vendor, who facilitated
an introduction to training specialist
Wayne Johnson, who had helped bring
alternative fuels in school bus fleets in
Pennsylvania. Biluck was interested in the
Pennsylvania program, and he reached
out to energy officials in New Jersey to see
if they wanted to test alternative fuel in
bus fleets.
Biluck’s original plan was to switch
Medford’s fleet to methanol, propane, or
compressed natural gas (CNG), but state
law prohibited the use of fuels other than
gasoline and diesel in school buses.
The setback proved temporary,
however, because Medford was now
known to the state as a district interested
in alternative fuel, and in 1993, the
state energy office reached out to see if
Medford would be interested in being a
pilot site for biodiesel. Medford had to
pass on the state’s first offer, because it
was for new vehicles only, and Medford
was not looking to replace its fleet.
The breakthrough finally came in 1996
when the state offered the district a
$115,000 grant to participate in a four-year
program to test the performance
of biodiesel blends in existing vehicles.
Medford was an excellent candidate,
because they had maintained meticulous
records of fleet operations for the
previous 10 years, which provided a solid
baseline for data comparison.
There was a lot of preliminary work to
do. The district needed to test its buses
and divide them into a test group for
biodiesel blends and a control group for
straight diesel. Biluck inventoried the
fleet and found he could divide vehicles
of comparable age and engine type easily
by simply assigning the even-numbered
buses to the test group and the odd-numbered
ones to the control group.
The district purchased and installed
a new 4,000-gallon tank for biodiesel
storage, and Biluck began seeking bids
for the fuel. He had originally expected to
purchase pure B100 biodiesel and blend it
into diesel at the district’s fleet facility, but
the provider that the district chose, Twin
River, said that the only way to ensure the
consistency of the fuel blend quality was
to blend the fuel prior to delivery.
In December 1997 Twin River (which
later became World Energy), delivered its
first load of B20 biodiesel to Medford’s
new tank. Based in Quincy, MA, Twin
River would deliver two loads a week to
Medford, which is located in south
central New Jersey, about 15 miles east of
Philadelphia.
Using biodiesel in a fleet might be no big
deal in 2018, but it was a different story
in 1997. Biodiesel was largely unknown,
and Biluck encountered some resistance
from bus drivers, who did not like the idea
of relying on an unproven fuel when they
were driving buses full of school children
in remote areas.
Nevertheless, the district put half
its buses and vehicles on B20, and the
positive results started piling up right
away. Emissions testing showed that
B20 was delivering notable reductions
in emissions of particulate matter,
hydrocarbon compounds, and NOx. The
district also saw a $0.02/mile reduction
in operating costs, due primarily to
reduced failure of exhaust systems and
fuel injection systems. Cost savings also
resulted from a reduction in engine
vibration, which reduced the fatigue
on engine mounts, mirror brackets
and similar parts. Engines vibrated less
because biodiesel has elevated oxygen
content, Biluck said.
It did not take long for the bus drivers
to come around. One driver who had
expressed doubts about the fuel’s
reliability apologized and told Biluck
about a student with pulmonary issues
who seemed to tolerate the exhaust from
the biodiesel-fueled buses much better
than he had ever tolerated diesel exhaust
fumes.
Biodiesel
helps schools
be progressive
Joe Biluck
Director of Technology (retired), Medford,26 Biodiesel Success Stories