O2Diesel's ethanol-diesel blend will be used in school buses in South Dakota
Remember O2Diesel, the company that is blending ethanol with diesel to make a cleaner-burning, less-polluting fuel? It's just taken another forward in getting its product into the market. O2Diesel said yesterday that all the school buses in the South Dakota Lead-Deadwood school district will move to O2Diesel. The switch is part of a national air quality initiative called CityHome. CityHome uses corporate sponsor dollars to pay to move municipal and school bus systems to use O2Diesel at no additional cost. The ethanol in the blend is made by KL Process, which currently makes ethanol from grains but says it wants to lead the move to cellolusic ethanol.
Exactly how much cleaner O2Diesel's ethanol-diesel blend is compared to straight diesel in the overall CO2 emissions picture (figuring in what it takes to grow and process the ethanol, for example) is still up for debate. O2Diesel says that a 2005 study transit bus study in Kansas "predicted emissions reductions of six tons per year by switching to O2Diesel." 75 buses were involved in that study.
Related: [Source: O2Diesel]
