state vehicles and equipment in the mountainous western part of North Carolina would not operate on B20. Using more biofuels may be a laudable goal, "but the
issue is also one of practicality and economics," Tatnall believes. "Biodiesel additives can be more expensive. It might cost 6-8 cents to additive a gallon of biodiesel, ver- sus 2-3 cents for conventional diesel. Who's going to pay that extra cost?" In Tatnall's area the average tanker load is 7,500 gallons.
Given the current intensity of price competition and the downward pressure on margins, the fuel seller's profit on that load is likely between $50 and $150. At the same time, the seller is also carrying the cost of the load as a receivable until paid by the end user. "That makes the extra cost of additizing biodiesel difficult
for the seller to bear," observes Tatnall. "If the fuel supplier can't bear the cost, the user must pay it—except that users don't want to pay. They want to buy fuel as cheaply as they can. And so nobody ends up doing the additizing that's needed—even though the technology is available to address the problems with biodiesel."
The real problem, Tatnall contends, is that "fuel costs so
much already, it's hard to add more costs with additives. So the problem won't be solved until additive solutions are developed that users are willing to pay for, or until users are educated by fuel sellers on why additives are worth the extra costs." For that reason, fuel marketers who sell biodiesel or pack-
aged additives to end users "should work with an additives supplier that will help you do your homework," advises Tatnall. Guerra suggests that working with a supplier that specializes in diesel additives can bring added knowledge to the relationship. "The gasoline additive tends to be domi- nated by big companies like STP," he notes, "so that our niche is the diesel market." Guerra counsels fuel marketers who do their own blend-
ing of additives into biodiesel to "make sure you've gotten a quality batch of biodiesel to start with by checking the per- centage of glycerine and water content." After that, he con- curs with Tatnall about the need for diligent homework. "Additizing biodiesel will add cost," he says, "which means you need to educate your customers on why these solutions are worth it."
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