Fleets
New York City municipal
fleet managers are deeply
committed to sustainable,
environmentally sound
operations, and biodiesel
plays a major role in reducing emissions
from the city-owned vehicles.
Mayors Michael Bloomberg and
Bill de Blasio and the New York City
Council have passed a succession of laws
to update fleet fuel standards. Current
policy calls for B20 in non-emergency
vehicles for most of the year, with a B5
standard in winter.
With the largest municipal fleet in
the United States, the City is using its
purchase power to help biodiesel gain a
critical foothold on the East Coast, and
it hopes to do the same for renewable
diesel. New York also maintains a
biodiesel standard for heating oil.
While policymakers are playing a
critical role by encoding the biodiesel
standards, it is the city’s fleet managers
who typically lead the charge, according
to Keith Kerman, Deputy Commissioner,
Department of Citywide Administrative
Services (DCAS).
For example, fleet managers have been
experimenting with B20 usage in the
winter for several years to learn what
works and what doesn’t. “We have used
B20 successfully in the colder months,”
Kerman explained. “The real issue there
is the mix, whether you mix with a D1
heavily winterized kind of kerosene fuel
or what we call our winterized D2. When
I was at the Parks Department in the late
2000s, we used B20 and D1 for the entire
fleet over three consecutive winters, and
it was very successful.”
The City is well staffed to manage
fuel blending. DCAS has its own Quality
Assurance Bureau and the Fleets
Division employs a fulltime PhD chemical
engineer, Ramona Ledesma-Garrido.
DCAS continues to study B20 and
run pilots with B50 and B100. “We’re
confident we can use B20 year-round, but
we’re still looking at the best ways to do
it,” Kerman said.
Biodiesel adoption started in 2005,
when the Parks and Recreation
Department began pilot-testing fuel
blends in some of its vehicles. Usage
surged a few years later when the
Sanitation Department, the municipality’s
largest consumer of diesel, piloted and
then adopted B5. “Parks is the steward
of the city’s open spaces, and they were
a very early adopter of hybrid vehicles,”
Kerman said. “They were always looking
for ways to have their fleets represent
their mission, and we got an opportunity
to pilot biodiesel, via a donation. We
first tested with garbage trucks on
Staten Island using B100 for much of the
summer, and it went very well. That really
piqued our interest for all the reasons
that people are interested in biodiesel:
greenhouse gas reduction, better air
quality emissions, and a domestic,
renewable fuel.”
In addition to biodiesel, the Parks
Department uses hybrids, electric cars
and even two solar-powered vehicles, and
the clean-fuel commitment is promoted
with decals and signage. The Department
Greenhouse
gas reduction,
better air quality,
and a domestic,
renewable fuel.
Keith Kerman
Deputy Commissioner Department of
Citywide Administrative Services
28 Biodiesel Success Stories