Marlborough businesses commit to biodiesel

Fourteen Marlborough companies have joined forces to buy 2.5 million litres of biodiesel.

Marlborough Biodiesel User Group's co-ordinator, Kevin Parker of Blenheim, said that by October, the wine, aquaculture and transport industry operators who had signed up should be filling vehicles with biodiesel. Modern harvesters, tractors, fishing vehicles and haulage trucks and other vehicles should run on the fuel with no conversion required.

The 2.5 million litres would meet the bulk of members' diesel requirements, Mr Parker said.

All group members had their own fuelling stations, which was a requirement at this stage, and most had their own storage tanks, he said. A complication was that some of these tanks were owned by existing fuel suppliers.

The group invited eight biodiesel producers to tender to supply and the successful company should be selected within five weeks, he said.

This first tender was for a 20 per cent B20 biodiesel blend that, when the project was launched, was the only product eligible for an Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority producers' subsidy of 42.5 cents a litre. In July, the Government extended the grant to pure B100 diesel.

"I expect we'll have B100 up and running within six months," Mr Parker said.

Modern engines could use this pure biodiesel but many older engines had not been tested with the product, he said.

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