Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/183648
Fuel factoid Building on prior alt-fuel successes with propane and biodiesel, company president Jeffery Gower lead an initiative in 2008 to test the viability of using reclaimed vegetable oil to power a portion of Fischer's delivery fleet. Gower explained the process: fuel is used. We saw the payback in our fleet, on average, at about 13 months. On routes that use more fuel, the payback actually came down to as low as nine months." "The difference between vegetable oil and diesel fuel is viscosity, so you have to make sure the vegetable oil stays hot throughout the system. Each tractor has two fuel tanks, so we convert one to hold vegetable oil and the other holds diesel. It's a hybrid arrangement that starts on diesel, and then when the fuel system is warm enough, the computer switches it to run on vegetable oil." "We collect the used vegetable oil from our (restaurant and bar) customer-base, and we have since branched out to other sources including hospitals and universities that we don't sell product to; we just collect vegetable oil from them. About half of the vegetable oil comes in through our normal delivery routes, just bringing it back in jugs and then we have a dedicated vehicle that collects the remaining half. Currently we are collecting and filtering approximately 1,500 gallons a week." "We converted our first vehicle in July '08 as a test of vegetable oil, and since then we've converted 13 of our tractors. There's a significant capital investment up front, approximately $6,000-$8,000, to convert a vehicle. The payback depends on how much Gower concludes, "The vegetable oil process is very different for us, but by filtering it and reclaiming it ourselves, the cost is so low that it's a great investment. We just have to be willing to do something that's outside our normal business scope and knowledge." OO / Owner operator/ october 2013 / / 60 OO 1013 fuel factoid.indd 2 9/10/13 10:40 AM