California's NorthStar Moving Corporation has just converted all of its trucks to run on biodiesel fuel. All of the fuel used by the moving and storage company will now be veggie-based. Additionally, their fleet of vehicles has also been fitted with battery-powered rear lift gates as opposed to hydraulic, meaning that the engine does not need to idle for extended periods.

NorthStar reportedly has tried greening other aspects of their operation. All of their boxes and stationery are made from recycled material and are reused when possible. The company claims that skylights and windows are used for natural lighting when possible and their warehouses are well-insulated. We applaud these efforts, of course, especially the use of biodiesel. With diesel prices as high as they are, we wonder what impact biodiesel may have on the market, considering that cost is often a driving factor when it comes to our energy needs.

The Association of Municipalities and Counties of Catalonia, Spain (ACM), has announced an agreement with Recicloil, a company that recycles used vegetable oil into biodiesel. The agreement states that the company will provide one liter of free biodiesel to citizens for each 20 liters of used oil people bring in. Recicloil will also provide a free 2,000-liter biodiesel pump (as well stickers) which will be installed for city fleets using this biodiesel.

While this is not the first of such networks, as we explained in another post, it's an important partnership. Spaniards tend to throw used oil down the drain, which is not only a waste of an useful resource, but causes lots of problems in water treatment plants. Powering cars seems much smarter.

[Source: Europa Press via Econoticias]

If you are reading our site, you are probably already familiar with the fact that any diesel vehicle can run on biodiesel. As a matter of fact, most any can diesel vehicle can even run on used vegetable oil with just a few modifications. There are some issues with vegetable oil which must first be addressed, one of which is keeping the fuel warm. What many conversion vehicles do to remedy this situation is to heat the vegetable oil and starting the vehicle with regular diesel fuel. A few other modifications are generally made to the fuel system to filter the veggie oil before it gets to the combustion chambers. How would you go about performing these operations? Check out this Instructable for directions on how a conversion was done on an older school bus. A few drums were strapped under the bus with the middle one being preheated before sending fuel to the engine. Check out the mad-max style photo above for a glimpse into this conversion.

Don't have a veggie oil conversion but still want to use heat from your engine for something useful? How about for cooking... click here.

[Source: Instructables]

In many places around the world, roads are financed at least in part by a tax added to the price of fuel. When we head to the pumps, we pay for a little bit of the road we drive out onto as we leave the station. But people who make their own biofuels don't pay these taxes and yet they drive on roads other people pay for. To make sure the load is balanced out a bit, many governments tax biofuels whether they are home-brewed or purchased. To get an idea of how this plays out in Alaska, check out this post over at Arctic Vegwerks.

The system for collecting waste oil or biodiesel taxes ($0.08/gallon state and $0.244/gallon federal) in Alaska starts like this:

The user must submit their Alaska Motor Fuel Tax on a monthly basis. Yeah, the tax office would really prefer it wasn't so often, but it's written into law. Seems like they would lose money processing a whole bunch of $5 checks every month! Some states exempt the first 2500 gallons, and the feds only require quarterly taxes, so lobby your Alaska legislators if you want to improve the law!

Arctic Vegwerks goes on to describe just how to fill out the state paperwork and quotes parts of the law that affect some green drivers up north. Got any good stories of how it affects you where you live?

[Source: Arctic Vegwerks]