Should It Matter Where Your Biodiesel Comes From?

On a recent sunny afternoon, Michael Chamberlin pulls his Ford pickup truck into Dr. Dan's Alternative Fuelwerks in Ballard, where he sticks his key card into the slot and begins to fill up for about $3.40 per gallon.

Why biodiesel? "Why not?" Chamberlin replies. "Why wouldn't I? It's a simple solution." Asked if he cares what kind of oil the fuel is made from—soy? canola? palm?—Chamberlin is ambivalent. "It's doesn't matter as long as it's biodiesel," he says.

"Fuck yeah, it matters," counters Nico Juarez, as he fills up his Chevy van with biodiesel across town at Laurelhurst Oil. "If it was my way, it would be all dumpster oil. You can't get any more local, more recyclable than that."

Juarez got into biodiesel six years ago when he bought a 500-gallon tank and started mixing his own, collecting used oil from fryer vats in local restaurants. If the oil to make biodiesel isn't collected or grown locally, he reasons, it takes more energy to get it to the pump than it does regular diesel fuel.

"People say, 'I'm green, I'm running around in my TDI [Volkswagen Passat].' They're hypocrites," Juarez says. "They run around with stuff that smells good, thinking they're all liberal with clean shit in their tank, but where did it come from? It infuriates me."

Indeed, Seattle's biodiesel enthusiasts come in many shades of green. And their personal differences are reflective of a budding war between entrepreneurs as the biodiesel industry sits on the cusp of a local explosion.

In the next few months alone, Imperium Renewables (formerly Seattle Biodiesel) plans to open a plant in Grays Harbor capable of producing 100 million gallons of biodiesel a year. Propel Biofuels plans to open between four and six retail biodiesel stations in Seattle and surrounding cities. Safeway plans to open its second biodiesel station in Ballard (the first one opened in West Seattle in February). And Planetary Fuels plans to open a biodiesel production facility in South Seattle.

Those on the growth side of the industry say it's important that biodiesel reach as many people as possible; that the alternative needs convenience to gain traction. But those on the greener side say biodiesel is in danger of being corrupted—that where the fuel comes from and how it gets here is more important than simply sticking the word "bio" in front of it and marketing to the masses.

Biodiesel can be made from a wide variety of plant oils and animal fats. Most of the biodiesel produced in the United States (including the fuel sold at Dr. Dan's and Laurelhurst Oil) comes from soybeans grown in the Midwest. (Juarez, for the record, says he was filling up at the pump that day for purely practical reasons: It takes a lot of time and money to clean and process dumpster oil to the point where it can be used as fuel.)

Dan Freeman, the eponymous founder of Dr. Dan's who's been selling biodiesel in Ballard for six years, says he too would prefer to get his stock from local sources. Short of that, he says trains are the most energy-efficient way to get the fuel here, and that domestic soybean oil is the best substance to make it with.

Dr. Dan's represents the ma-and-pop quotient in the local biodiesel scene. The Ballard station's pump is housed in a metal shed that sits in front of Freeman's office, a hole-in-the-wall room stacked high with books and jars of different grades of biodiesel and frequented by folks who forget their key cards or have questions about how to work the machine.

From behind his cluttered desk, Freeman says he's concerned about Imperium's Grays Harbor plant amid reports that a percentage of its product may be made from palm oil shipped from Malaysia. He says this defeats biodiesel's purpose for two reasons: It takes a lot of energy to get fuel here from Malaysia, and rain forests are often cleared in order to grow palmcrops.

"If you're not doing it sustainably, you're doing it irresponsibly," he says. "And that will damage both the industry and the environment."

It also doesn't help that Propel Biofuels, which plans to sell Imperium's product, is opening its first Seattle station a couple blocks down the street from Dr. Dan's. "They're trying to cut into the market we created," Freeman says.

Propel founder Rob Elam says they're opening in Ballard simply because of demand. When asked about Freeman, Elam says, "We all fueled there. We respect that he's been a pioneer in the space. Everybody respects his contributions."

Elam's company plans to open six stations in the Seattle area over the next several months. The first four will likely open in Kenmore, Maple Valley, Bellevue, and Lake Forest Park in a matter of weeks, with the Ballard station following shortly thereafter. (All openings are dependent on Propel making it through the permitting process.) The sixth station is planned for South Lake Union.