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GREENSBORO Triad motorists should find biodiesel fuel more widely available in a few months, thanks to a project announced Monday at the tank farm in western Greensboro.


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The project at Petroleum Fuel Terminal, 6900 W. Market St., will retrofit a huge tank to make it a ready source of the renewable fuel. It's the first of its kind in North Carolina.


The N.C. Solar Center is contributing $150,000 to the project that involves a partnership between Boston-based biodiesel supplier World Energy Alternatives and the terminal company.


"This is something we've been needing for a long time," said Anne Tazewell, program manager for the solar center, affiliated with N.C. State. "The goal for these alternative fuels is to make them much more integrated with the mainstream so they become a lot more available."


The solar center promotes the use of alternative fuels. It awarded the grant to World Energy through the Clean Fuel Advanced Technology Project, a program the center supervises to improve air quality in the Triad and other areas that fall short of federal pollution standards.


The project at the tank farm will retrofit a standard, 172,000-gallon storage tank with new piping, insulation and a heating element for winter use.


Biodiesel is versatile fuel made from such agricultural feedstocks as soybeans, canola and animal fats rather than petroleum. It burns more cleanly than its traditional counterpart.


Increased use of biodiesel "can help us reduce our reliance on imported oil, stimulate economic development and improve air quality," Tazewell said.


Most vehicles that run on standard diesel can use the biofuels alternative without modification, said David Shiflett, World Energy vice president.


The project will make biodiesel more available because it will attract fuel distributors who don't have specialized storage equipment for biodiesel, Shiflett said.


"It's just a lot more convenient for distributors to load there and use biodiesel," he said.


Much biodiesel sold at the pump is a blend of both the petroleum and alternative fuels ranging from B5, made of 5 percent biodiesel, to B20 that is one fifth biodiesel.


World Energy will bring biodiesel to the reworked tank by tanker truck and rail car, Shiflett said.


Distributors can create their own biofuel blend of B20, for example, by filling their truck 80 percent full at a traditional tank and the rest of the way at the new World Energy facility.


"It's called splash blending," Tazewell said. "It blends as it is being driven down the road."


Shiflett said his company will bring biodiesel to the Triad from a variety of sources, noting that substantial production plants are located from Georgia and South Carolina to the Midwest. His company and Petroleum Fuel Terminal are contributing about $100,000 to the project's total price of $250,000.


For years, the tank farm has been a major distribution point for traditional fuels in a variety of blends that arrive in pipelines from the Gulf Coast.


The latest project serves notice that there's a new kid on the block, "right alongside major East Coast pipelines that bring petroleum fuel," Shiflett said.


"Greensboro can now become a biofuels distribution hub as well," he said.

Contact Taft Wireback at 373-7100 or taft. wireback@news-record.com