Durango, CO stops using biodiesel

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The City of Durango, CO stopped using biodiesel in its vehicles around the first of the year, according to an article in the Durango Herald. The city had some problems with the fuel, with engines becoming fouled with an unidentified sludge. Of the 42,000 gallons of fuel used by city vehicles in 2005, 40,000 to 41,000 were biodiesel. The problems with biodiesel are blamed on lack of quality control and standards in the local biodiesel production. The San Luis Valley Rural Electrical Cooperative has also recently switched back to diesel for reasons similar to Durango's. The City of Durango did run its city vehicles on biodiesel for two years with very few problems, so these recent problems are surprising. The Durango Mountain Resort has not had any problems running its on-mountain equipment on biodiesel in winter. Other alternatives for Durango are being investigated, including ethanol and hydrogen fuel cells, but current buses can not run ethanol, and a fuel cell bus costs the equivalent of 10 regular buses.

[Source: Durango Herald]