Sen. Tester on Hand for BNSF Kickoff of Bio Fuel Testing in Locomotive

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By KFBB News Team

Story Published: Jul 17, 2010 at 5:56 PM MDT

Story Updated: Jul 17, 2010 at 5:57 PM MDT

Senator Jon Tester made a stop along the Hi-Line this morning for the start of a unique project. BNSF has partnered with multiple groups in Havre and the surrounding area to test bio fuels in one of its locomotives. Today the partnership kicked off the start of the year long study.

The plan is to convert one locomotive to run on bio diesel and study how it works for an entire year. “A year long test is very hard to duplicate in a lab environment or an accelerated test environment. So, this will give us some real world experience in inclement weather and cold and hot seasons,” BNSF Diesel Facility Superintendent Beau Price says.

BNSF says it knows the train will lose horse power but wants to see how the rest of the locomotive works with bio fuel. “To see how that particular B-20 fuel performs in this style of engine and how it affects the fuel system,” Price says.

The bio fuels will be produced from crops harvested here in Montana giving producers another buyer. “Agriculture is king here in Montana and being able to have crops that can be harvested by our agricultural community and then processed into bio fuel is very important,” Executive Director of Bear Paw Development Corporation, Paul Tuss says.

Senator Tester says he believes the project will help Montanans. “I think there’s going to be a lot of jobs created by bio fuel. Whether it’s processing, or whether it’s utilizing them as transportation fuels,” he says.

MSU Northern will certify the fuels, in its research center before they are used in the engine. “Every little thing like this helps push that program further ahead. And we’ve done just about everything at this point for emissions, performance, and the next step really is aviation fuel,” Dean of Technical Sciences at MSU Northern, Greg Kegel says.

Tuss says he thinks the results will be positive. Saying, “What I hope is that this proves to corporate America is that bio fuels can be an important component to their companies as they look to fuel themselves in the future.”

BNSF uses the 2nd most diesel fuel of any industry in the United States and goes through about 30 million gallons a year in Havre. It's too soon for BNSF to say it will be switching all of its locomotives to bio fuel; it wants to see the data first.

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