Whether you realize it or not, biodiesel is being used to harvest crops, bring students to school and transport lunch to the school cafeteria. Fueling these modes of transportation is none other than the coveted soybean.
In hopes of a greener future, farmers are not only trying to lower their intensity score, but companies like PepsiCo also have a mission to decarbonize their way of business through clean fuel.
But some still question this farm-to-fuel future.
Take it from North Dakota farmer Ryan Pederson, who lives 25 miles from the Canadian border. “You wanted me to talk about biodiesel.” he says. “Let me just say it works.”
Integrating Clean Fuels
Pederson is a veteran user of biodiesel on his own operation and has been utilizing this green fuel since 2012. He grows canola and soybeans, with experience on both commodity boards and quickly became involved with the biodiesel industry.
“What drew me to the industry was the people and their passion for the ag industry, for rural economies and for the environment,” Pederson says. “And as I worked with these folks, I also started to like the fuel and realized that the fuel did a lot of good things for us as well.”
Farmers like Pederson are the first part of the multistep process of decarbonization through biodiesel.
After farmers harvest soybean fields, the crop heads to a crush facility for oil extraction. From there, it is turned into fuel to be utilized by the transportation industry.
John Benish Jr. is the owner and operator of Cook-Illinois, a major school bus company in the state, and was the first to switch his fleet to biodiesel.
“The school bus is the greenest vehicle in America,” Benish says. “Each school bus takes over 36 cars off the road because we usually travel with 20 to 40 children.”
WITH SOY: A panel of a farmer, school bus owner and a fleet manager gather to discuss how biodiesel has a role in all their operations. The common theme — the role of biodiesel reducing their carbon footprint. (Photo by Elizabeth Hodges)
WITH SOY: A panel of a farmer, school bus owner and a fleet manager gather to discuss how biodiesel has a role in all their operations. The common theme — the role of biodiesel reducing their carbon footprint. (Photo by Elizabeth Hodges)
Running biodiesel in school buses is the true test of the reliability of the fuel.
“If you have a bus that breaks down in the morning when it is negative 20 and you have 40 or 50 kindergarten children on the bus, that is a big deal,” Benish explains. “The nice thing about biodiesel is you can green up the environment, but it is also reliable.”
The Cook-Illinois corporation is in a unique position to see the impact of biodiesel on its engines as well.
“We rebuild all our own engines from scratch, all our own starters and alternators,” Benish adds. “When we started to strip down the engines, we were able to see a lot of benefits from the biodiesel.”
To the Lunch Table
Clean fuels not only play an integral role in the agricultural industry and getting students safely to school, but they also have a vital role in the large fleets that carry food across the country.
PepsiCo is an innovator in the clean fuels space, transitioning nearly its entire fleet to high blends of biodiesel and renewable diesel.
In 200 different countries with a whole slew of brands PepsiCo, from a supply chain standpoint, touches a lot of parts in the U.S., according to Paula Hanebach, fleet manager at PepsiCo.
Hanebach says PepsiCo alone supports more than 12,000 farmers across the U.S. With such a big impact worldwide, this pop and chip company holds themselves to a high standard when it comes to sustainability.
PepsiCo runs B99 soon to be B100, thanks to the Optimist vector system. The system is an upfitted vehicle that starts on diesel and then switches to biodiesel as soon as the biodiesel is at the correct temperature.
Many companies are following PepsiCo’s lead and starting to utilize the Optimus system to run higher levels of biodiesel in their fleets.
This is just one step in decarbonizing the transportation industry, and it all starts with the farmers who grow these feedstocks.
