Biofuels Resources: Stories
Biodiesel Pilot On Track at Smugglers' Notch (Summer 2005)
The unmistakable smell of French fries is floating through Smugglers' Notch Resort these days ' but it's not coming from the cafes and restaurants. Since mid-May, the year-round resort in Jeffersonville has been using biodiesel to power its tractors, forklifts, and mowers.
So far, the operations department at Smugglers' Notch has used about 1,800 gallons of the biodiesel-petroleum mixture known as B20, and has plans to use much more when the snowmaking season arrives. Starting in November, the resort will use B20 to power its 14 snowmaking air compressors and, assuming initial runs are successful, will continue to do so through the snowmaking season. In total, Operations Manager Tom McGrail expects to use more than 200,000 gallons of biodiesel throughout the ski season.
'We see this pilot test as a great opportunity to protect the health of our employees, help the environment, and support local businesses,' McGrail said. 'No matter how you look at it, it's a win-win situation for everybody.' If biodiesel proves effective this year, Smugglers' Notch plans to expand its usage in coming years, according to McGrail.
In conjunction with the snowmaking application, researchers from Keene State College in New Hampshire will perform air quality testing throughout the 2005-2006 ski season to better quantify the health effects of biodiesel versus petroleum-based diesel. As part of the testing program, Dr. Melinda Treadwell, new faculty member Nora Velazquez, and several undergraduate research assistants will conduct ambient air quality testing in the area surrounding the truck-sized air compressors. 'There is limited research on the health effects of biodiesel emissions versus petroleum-based fuels,' Velazquez said. 'With the growing usage of biodiesel, we think that this research will have national significance.'
Air quality testing will involve the placement of testing equipment adjacent to the compressor smokestacks and at various distances from the compressors bank. Because the research is focused on the effects of emissions on humans, detection equipment may also be attached to Smugglers' Notch employees that work near the compressors to help determine their exposure. Funding for the emissions testing comes primarily from the National Institutes of Health.
The Smugglers' Notch pilot project is part of the Vermont Biodiesel Project, a two-year project that received major funding from the U.S. Department of Energy State Energy Program via the Vermont Department of Public Service and the State of Vermont via the Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund. Together with 15 partners, the grant participants seek to build the market for biodiesel in Vermont through education, outreach, and real-time applications such as the pilot project at Smugglers' Notch. Grant work will continue through August of 2006 and will include pilot projects at other Vermont locations.
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