From the Fresno Bee

Imagine seeing diesel trucks start up without a belch of black smoke. Now think of diesel truck exhaust that smells like egg rolls, doughnuts or french fries.

Those sights and aromas might become familiar if lawmakers bite on new legislation to encourage use of “clean-air” biodiesel — a diesel-engine fuel made from vegetable oils or animal fats and even waste oil from restaurants.

State Sen. Dean Florez, D-Shafter, introduced seven bills this month in hopes of making the fuel common. But before you start looking for a biodiesel pump at the filling station, there’s one important question about biodiesel that hasn’t been fully answered.

Will it make the air worse in the smoggy San Joaquin Valley?

Biodiesel drastically reduces the cancer-causing specks produced by petroleum diesel, and also sends out far fewer hydrocarbons — an ingredient in ozone, the corrosive gas in smog.

But a 2002 report from the Environmental Protection Agency said biodiesel, compared to petroleum-based diesel, slightly increased smog-making nitrogen oxides, or NOx. One of the Valley’s biggest air-quality headaches is an abundance of nitrogen oxides.

“Strictly from an air quality viewpoint,” said Don Hunsaker, plan development supervisor at the local air district, “if it increased NOx, it would not be good for us in the Valley. But we have to see what technology will do to address that issue.”

There are few bigger air quality issues than nitrogen oxides in the Valley, which had the nation’s second-highest total of federal smog violations last year. The San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District this year will assemble a smog cleanup plan that hinges on a massive reduction of the pollutant.

Florez said he is a believer in biodiesel, which he said he considers a worthy addition to clean-air alternatives — such as compressed natural gas, hybrid-engine technology, ethanol and eventually hydrogen.

His new bills would promote the production, sales and use of biodiesel with tax breaks and mandates. Florez’s Senate Bill 70, which would establish California standards for biodiesel as a fuel, mentions a 20% mix, known as B20. The fuel can be 100% biodiesel, or it can be a mixture of petroleum diesel and biodiesel.

Florez’s bills would require school buses and state vehicles powered by diesel engines to use biodiesel fuel.

“We can eliminate the toxic particulates that our children are breathing,” Florez said before he introduced the series of bills. “You get huge reductions of soot and particulates.”

The nitrogen oxides issue, however, concerns both the EPA and the state Air Resources Board, which supervises California’s air quality. Both remain open to the idea of using this fuel as scientists further investigate the issue.

The results of scientific inquiry have begun to come in. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, Colo. — the U.S. Department of Energy’s chief research unit — reported tests showing that engines running on biodiesel emitted less nitrogen oxides, compared to conventional diesel.

Emissions may depend on the engine, said Matt Haber, deputy director of EPA’s regional air division in San Francisco.

An additive called Soltron reduces nitrogen oxides in biodiesel, said Richard Irwin, technical marketing representative for Silvas Oil Co. in Fresno. He said the additive helps his company market biodiesel in the Valley.

Silvas Oil sells biodiesel to federal agencies, such as the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and the Postal Service, which use the fuel in vehicles.

“We buy biodiesel from a company in Houston,” he said. “Biodiesel sales are a small percentage of our business — single digits. But we see growth and interest in this fuel.”

He and others said the cost of biodiesel is close to the price of diesel. The fuel also is considered a good lubricant for diesel engines. And, using biodiesel means importing fewer gallons of oil.

Commercial biodiesel production has increased — tripling from 2004 to 2005, according to federal figures — as the public becomes aware of the advantages. Biodiesel has become popular in states such as Illinois and Texas.

But biodiesel is produced in only a handful of California plants. The fuel is sold at about 30 retail pumps around the state, and none is in the Valley, according to biodiesel associations.

Meanwhile, in many backyards and garages, there are people making their own biodiesel.

Richard Robinson of Fresno has a twin brother, Robert, who makes biodiesel at his home in Sacramento. Robert also runs his 1980s diesel Chevrolet Suburban on vegetable oil or free waste oil from restaurants.

“He was going to Superb Burger and gets three buckets of waste oil every week,” Richard Robinson said. “Probably the best smell was when he had oil used in making shrimp.”