Major Terminal Operator Supports Infrastructure for Biodiesel - Shell
Web Portal - April 3rd 2006
Willie Nelson and Morgan Freeman brought star power to
the opening ceremony of its new biodiesel blending facility at the
Motiva Enterprises terminal in Dallas, TX. Terminal-blended biodiesel
is now available to customers in the Dallas/Fort
Worth area.
This biodiesel blending facility was installed under an exclusive pilot agreement
with Motiva, which allowed for the installation of a
30,000 gallon biodiesel tank and rack blending equipment on the Motiva Enterprises
terminal premises located on Singleton Blvd. in Dallas, TX.
Tanker trucks can now load biodiesel fully blended with petrodiesel at
the Motiva Enterprises terminal in Dallas, which will reduce
transportation costs normally associated with the distribution of
biodiesel blends. As fuel tank trucks fill at the loading rack, the
specialized blending equipment reliably blends pure (B100) biodiesel
with petrodiesel supplied from Motiva's diesel storage tanks. Motiva is
believed to be the first major terminal operator to provide such a
service.
Terminal blending is a time and mileage saving breakthrough for fuel
trucks that would otherwise have to make two stops, one to pick up
biodiesel and one to pick up petrodiesel. Terminal blending ensures the
correct blending of the products and eliminates "splash blending" in
which the two products are loaded at different locations and mixed in
the truck. Terminal blending will provide a consistently high-quality,
finished product.
"Piloting biodiesel distribution at our terminal helps to position
Motiva to effectively meet the needs of our customers as their demands
evolve," said Dan Grinstead, General Manager of Distribution for Motiva
Enterprises LLC, a refining, distribution and fuels marketing company.
Customers and distributors in the Dallas/Fort Worth
area can now offer the biodiesel/diesel fuel mixture to retail outlets,
such as Love's Travel Stops and Country Stores, so that biodiesel
blends like BioWillie can be made available to truckers and other
diesel-powered vehicle owners at easily accessible retail outlets
throughout the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex.
"Love's Travel Stops and Country Stores started offering BioWillie in
two locations near Dallas and the response has been tremendous," said
Mike Brakefield, Director of Fuel Distribution at Loves Travel Stops
and Country Stores. "Motiva's decision to provide infrastructure for
biodiesel at the same terminal where our Gemini fuel trucks are loading
diesel fuel ensures that the Love's supply chain remains efficient and
helps keep fuel costs down for our customers."
Additive Systems, Inc. (ASI) has
installed a 30,000 gallon biodiesel
tank to store pure (B100) biodiesel at the Motiva Terminal. This heated
tank is connected with heat traced pipes to Motiva’s diesel loading
rack and fully integrated with Motiva’s measurement systems with
specially designed blending equipment. As a fuel tank truck fills at
the Motiva loading rack, ASI’s specialized blending equipment
mixes pure (B100) biodiesel from this tank on the fly with petro-diesel
supplied from Motiva’s diesel storage tanks.
The
Clean Cities, the Texas Soybean Association and the National Biodiesel
Board have all provided support for the project in the form of a grant
issued by Clean Cities in 2005. Mindy Mize of North Texas Clean Cities
says “Offering terminally blended biodiesel is a great leap
forward in the effort to reduce our nation’s dependence on
imported fossil fuels”.
The BioWillie brand
grew out of Willie Nelson’s passion for helping the family farmer
and his drive to reduce our dependence on foreign oil. Willie Nelson
and Peter Bell developed the BioWillie brand for the trucking
industry.
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