For Immediate Release

Vermont Biofuels Association
awards "bioheat" grant to Richmond fuel dealer

[MIDDLEBURY] The Vermont Biofuels Association (VBA), based in Middlebury, has recently awarded a $5,000 grant to Patterson Fuels of Richmond, VT. The grant will assist Patterson Fuels with introducing biodiesel to a sample group of the company’s home heating customers. Patterson Fuels will match the grant and the combined funding will be used to pay for the cost of the biodiesel, perform combustion efficiency tests, and service and monitor the heating systems using biodiesel. The company will submit its findings in a final report. The grant is being administered by the VBA as one part of the larger Vermont Bioheat Program, which was announced in October 2005.

The Vermont Fuel Dealers Association (VFDA) and The National Oilheat Resource Alliance (NORA) have provided funding for the Vermont Bioheat Program through the Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund. The Vermont Biofuels Association was selected to manage the $36,000 one-year project.

The goal of the program is to help build the market for biofuels in home heating by carefully studying the fuel stability and performance characteristics of B20 (a biodiesel blend consisting of 20 percent biodiesel and 80 percent No.2 petroleum heating oil). Biodiesel is a renewable, vegetable oil based fuel that blends easily with petroleum and in a B20 blend is known to perform well in home furnaces and boilers without any significant equipment modification. Biodiesel has a less harmful impact on human health and reduces greenhouse gas and particulate emissions as well as sulfur and nitrogen oxides, when compared with No.2 heating oil.

Patterson Fuels, under the direction of the company’s vice president Jason Harvey, will gather much needed information about how well B20 (also known as "bioheat") performs and stores over the course of a Vermont winter. Reflecting on their involvement in the project, Harvey says "We became interested in bioheat because we can reduce our dependency on foreign oil with a product grown (and produced) right here in the United States.  We call it "Green Heat" and we hope to gain a better understanding of its affects on residential heating equipment."

After conducting an initial round of tests that establish baseline data using conventional No.2 oil, Patterson Fuels will introduce B20 to the sample group and keep careful records on each customer as the season progresses. A final inspection and combustion test will be performed in the spring and a report of the results will be made available to the public and Vermont fuel dealers.

"Jason has been very assertive in his efforts to bring biodiesel to Patterson Fuels and bioheat to central Vermont," says Netaka White, project manager and executive director of the VBA. "They’ve worked hard to learn about the properties of the fuel and have been selling biodiesel in Chittenden and northern Addison County since the summer. It was a competitive grant process, and Patterson Fuels is well organized and really interested in gathering the data. We’re very pleased to be working with them."

Founded in November 2003, the Vermont Biofuels Association is dedicated to increasing the demand and capacity for locally produced biodiesel and other agriculturally-based fuels and serves as a community resource for the development of a sustainable biofuels industry in Vermont. The association’s initial focus has been on biodiesel fuel used for diesel-powered vehicles and biodiesel used as a heating fuel.

For additional information about the association, contact Netaka White at (802) 388-1328 or Greg Pahl at (802) 388-0134, or visit the association’s Web site at www.vermontbiofuels.org.

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Phone: 1-800-427-Warm (Toll Free)
985-3470, 434-2616, 862-3447, 899-3155
Contact us: Email - Jason@pattersonfuels.com