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Green Berets Prefer Biodiesel
When Erwin Rommel's Panzer tanks ran out of diesel fuel in North Africa in World War II, the German general poured cooking oil into their gas tanks to keep the vehicles fighting.The U.S. military thinks Germany's "Desert Fox" might have been onto something. At bases throughout the United States, soldiers are filling their gas tanks with biodiesel -- diesel fuel made from soybean or other vegetable oil. The Marines are among those leading the charge. At Camp Pendleton, just north of San Diego, for example, the semis that haul the Marines' 70-ton M-1 tanks have been running B20, a mix of 20 percent biodiesel and 80 percent petroleum diesel, for more than two years. So have the buses and trucks that carry the troops and their gear, forklifts, generators -- even a diesel locomotive in the base's switchyard. So far, the military is not running biodiesel in tanks or other equipment that could get sent into battle zones. But at bases in the United States, use of the environmentally friendly fuel is growing rapidly. In 2003, the Marine Corps used 844,000 gallons of B20 biodiesel, says retired Navy Cmdr. Leo Grassilli, a military biodiesel expert. This year, Camp Pendleton and other nearby bases alone expect to use more than a million gallons. "We've been told we're the No. 1 user of biodiesel in the U.S.," says Gary Funk, the fleet manager for Marine Corps vehicles there. The other military services are also turning to biodiesel. The naval station at Everett, Washington, has been running the fuel since 2001. So has Peterson Air Force Base near Colorado Springs, Colorado. Biodiesel can be found on at least 40 more Air Force bases, according to the National Biodiesel Board. All told, the military will use more than 6 million gallons of biodiesel this year, according to the Defense Energy Support Center, the government agency that supplies the military with fuel. That's still a drop in the bucket compared to the military's overall fuel needs, however. The Navy and Marine Corps burn through nearly 2 billion gallons of diesel a year, says Grassilli. Biodiesel use in the military is just beginning to take off. Earlier this year, the Department of the Navy ordered all Navy and Marine installations in the United States to begin using biodiesel when possible. Large naval bases such as the one at Norfolk, Virginia, are installing additional fuel tanks specifically for biodiesel. The Navy is even experimenting with brewing its own biodiesel from the used vegetable oil that comes out of its mess halls. One advantage of biodiesel, say military officials, is that it delivers the same performance as petroleum diesel, but is far less damaging to the environment. "There's no loss of power, and we get the same mileage," says Donald Schregardus, deputy assistant secretary of the Navy for environmental programs, "and the vehicles are cleaner. You don't get the soot that you get out of regular diesel." Posted by: Anonymoose 2005-09-28 |
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