"We just want to open up our markets," said Pat Boova, secretary- treasurer of the Pennsylvania Soybean Board, which sponsored a soybean- powered bus ride yesterday from Harrisburg to City Hall in Philadelphia.
SoyDiesel, which is just one of several so-called biodiesels that can be derived from oily seeds, has the same properties as the conventional petroleum fuel, its boosters say. When used as an additive to diesel fuel, it requires no engine modifications.
A 20 percent mixture of biodiesel in conventional diesel reduces particulates, carbon monoxide and hydrocarbons to between 11 percent and 22 percent, according to its promoters. That's attractive for fleet operators, who are under pressure to reduce their diesel emissions to comply with the 1990 Clean Air Act.
"It seems like a great way to get diesel emissions under control," said Sara R. Nichols, staff attorney for the Delaware Valley Clean Air Council.
Like many alternative fuels, SoyDiesel has everything going for it except price - it costs $2.30 a gallon, more than three times the wholesale cost of petroleum-based diesel.
"It'll probably need an assist from the federal government," said Peter Kostmayer, the former Bucks County congressman, who was on hand yesterday to view the bus and assist in a ceremonial refueling.
SoyDiesel disciples say they have not discovered anything new. Indeed, in 1897, when Rudolph Diesel demonstrated the engine that came to bear his name, he used 100 percent vegetable oil as his fuel.
Chemically speaking, processing can create diesel fuel from any long-chain
fatty acid. "You name it - corn oil, vegetable oil, meat fat, dead animals, cottonseed oil, canola oil, the old fat from McDonald's deep fat fryers," said Peters, who, of course, advocates soy oil as the superior alternative.
