Dealers warm to bioheat prospects

When Jim Proulx of Proulx Oil and Propane in Newmarket, N.H., was first introduced to bioheat, he smelled a winner.

Literally.

A friend was using a biodiesel mix in his truck and was explaining the product and told Proulx to smell the exhaust.

“It smelled like a drop of cooking oil on a hot frying pan,” Proulx said. “Now, you know what diesel smells like. Which (product) would you like to be around?”

Biodiesel is regular diesel fuel combined with a mixture of soybean oil, animal fat and yellow grease (also called restaurant grease). It has been around for about 10 years, says Paul Nazzaro, a petroleum adviser with the National Biodiesel Board based in North Andover, Mass.

He said the technology became available to integrate biodiesel with heating oil to make bioheat, which he says burns cleaner, is easier on oil burners and is greener than conventional heating oil.

He said it also helps the efficiency of heating systems and extends their life. For consumers, transition to bioheat is seemless, he added.

About eight years ago when Proulx first learned of bioheat, it was slightly more expensive, he said, but he was intrigued with the idea of a cleaner-burning fuel.

Then when a production credit was offered that brought the price slightly below regular home heating oil blend, “I became more enthusiastic,” he said. “I think we’re all in favor of the environment, so as a businessman here was a product that was as good or better, and yes there is a green component, and now it’s less expensive and better. I’m doing a disservice not to support it.”

Bioheat’s cost has since risen slightly, but Proulx sells a 4 percent bioheat blend in all his fuels and keeps his prices competitive.

“People like the fact that it’s cleaner and better for the environment,” he said this week.

Proulx said customers can boost their blend to between 9 and 10 for no extra charge, or go as high as the current threshold of 20 percent for about an extra dime a gallon.

Nazzaro said many oil dealers have been slow to get onboard with bioheat for many reasons, but mostly because, “their plates are full with survival mode.”

Rick Card, CEO of D.F. Richard Energy of Dover, said all of the oil retailers who pick up at the Newington plants have some bioheat component in their fuel, though many don’t even know it.

One Seacoast oil dealer told The Lebanon Voice he did not have any bioheat blends available.

Card said it is mandated by the federal government to have some bioheat blend and as much as 5 percent, though many home heating oil companies do not market it.

Card said D.F. Richard fuels carries a 5 percent bioheat mixture, but his company does not offer any higher percentage blends, though they may become available in the future.

D.F. Richard also injects an extra chemical additive called “greenburn” to its fuel to make burners run more efficiently and cleaner.

Another area dealer that offers a bioheat blend is Downeast Energy of Dover.

For more information about bioheat go to http://bioheatonline.com.