Canadian Provincial Carrier to Test B2 Biodiesel in Half its Fleet
24 April 2006
The Saskatchewan Transportation Company (STC) will test a B2 (2% biodiesel) blend in half its buses in the coming year. STC plans to blend the fuel in its storage tanks in Saskatoon and use the mixture in all buses which fuel at that facility, approximately 54% of its fleet.
State-owned STC provides transportation throughout the province of Saskatchewan. In 2005 it carried 267,385 passengers more than 3.2 million miles, to and from 275 communities in the province. It also carried approximately two million pieces of freight, mostly to rural communities, over the course of the year.
STC will use one million liters of diesel fuel from its Saskatoon facility over the course of the year, working out to about 20,000 liters of biodiesel for the blend. STC will be using biodiesel supplied by Milligan Bio-tech.
We already know that biodiesel fuel burns cleaner than regular fuel, and is therefore better for the environment. The company wants to give the fuel an extensive testing to gauge potential savings in terms of mileage and motor life.
This has the potential to be a win-win-win situation. The use of biodiesel would be good for the environment, it has potential to be good for STC’s bottom-line, and it will assist the development of a value-added industry within our agricultural sector.
—Eldon Lautermilch, Minister responsible for STC
The Saskatchewan Transportation Company is a Crown Corporation of the province of Saskatchewan. It was established by Government Order In Council in 1946 and its operations are governed by its Board of Directors, under the authority of The Crown Corporations Act, 1993.
2%? I guess that's a start but I certainly hope that if there's no problem they'll increase the ratio.
Posted by: Mike GR | 25 April 2006 at 10:16 AM
2% on half their fleet... sounds like a politician pretending to be interested in the environment.
Posted by: katz | 28 April 2006 at 10:24 AM