Waste and recycling vehicles use soy biodiesel fuel

Tank installed in Campbelltown

SITA Environmental Solutions’ (SITA) Campbelltown service centre is now providing a cleaner, greener collection service to residents in and around the Campbelltown City Council local government area.

The SITA Campbelltown service centre operates 21 residential recycling and general waste collection vehicles.

The site has installed a 26,500 L tank which will provide each of the collection vehicles with a Soydiesel B20 fuel, a naturally derived diesel substitute.

SITA Branch Manager Allan Chisholm said, “The properties of the Soydiesel fuel blend provide natural lubricity, which is good for the truck engines Â… and great for the environment.”

“Our trucks will now produce fewer emissions and be more efficient.”

“The drivers are happy knowing that they are doing just a little bit more to help the environment, as their trucks are running on a fuel that is 20% Soydiesel,” said Chisholm.

The Soydiesel fuel blend is distributed by National Biofuels Group. Pure Soybiodiesel (B100) is made wholly from soybeans.

Soybeans are grown for high-protein animal feed (soybean meal). The soybean oil is removed during this process as a waste product and converted to a fuel that can be directly substituted for petroleum diesel. It is essentially free of sulfur and aromatics.

SITA has a number of other sites across the country that run Soydiesel-powered vehicles, including its Wetherill Park service centre that has over 40 trucks. That site alone has ticked over using 1,000,000 L of Soydiesel B20 fuel. Since October 2009, at its Wetherill Park site, SITA’s consumption to date of Soybiodiesel B100 component is said to equate to a saving of 689 tonnes of CO₂e emissions.