To all those motorists out there cruising around in some vintage diesel Benz from the 1980s or trusty old pickup with a diesel engine that keeps going and going: You just gained many more opportunities to fuel up with biodiesel. B20, a fuel blend that incorporates 20 percent vegetable-oil-based biodiesel, burns cleaner than petroleum and is becoming available at more locations across Western North Carolina. You don’t have to retrofit your car to pump it.
Blue Ridge Biofuels, Asheville’s homegrown supplier that uses waste fryer oil from local restaurants to produce the greasy stuff, is opening a new pump in Waynesville this weekend at a station called Peak Oil (appropriate, no?), located at 129 S. Main St. Next week, they’ll open another one in Black Mountain Station, at 108 Black Mountain Ave.
Smoky Mountain Biofuels, located at the Green Energy Park in Jackson County, opened a new pump in Franklin yesterday (917 Georgia Highway), the first of 23 new locations — 10 of which will be in Buncombe County. Biodiesel is better for the environment because it pollutes less than petroluem, and it’s made from renewable resources.
— Rebecca Bowe, editorial assistant
