Biofuel: A Heating Oil
About 8.1 million U.S. homes use oil for their heat source. Heating oil, also called No. 2 fuel oil, is a low viscosity oil used in residential and commercial furnaces to heat buildings. So why not burn biofuel mixes in a percentage or all of these homes?
It’s slow to market, but mixtures are becoming available in certain markets. A B10 blend is available in the Boston area, launched by the Massachusetts Energy Consumers Alliance with a grant for marketing and education (http://www.massenergy.com/Index.html). Through Mass Energy, consumers can heat a building with standard No. 2 heating oil blended with oil refined from vegetable oil, recycled cooking grease, or animal fats.
Biodiesel for heating oil is growing in Maine in residences and businesses. The Maine Audubon Society’s Gilsland Farm Center in Falmouth has been using a blend of petroleum and domestic products like soybean oil to heat the buildings and run a tractor since 2005.
In New York Governor George Pataki issued an Executive Order that calls on all state and public authorities to increase consumption of biofuels so that at least five percent of heating oil used in state buildings is biodiesel by 2012.
Other programs are expanding across New England and other parts of the northeast as well.
Wednesday, August 1, 2007
