St. Johns Public Schools, MI
Biodiesel is a proven safe and efficient alternative to diesel fuel and can be used in existing diesel school buses, without modification, saving school districts the expense of purchasing new technologies.
St. Johns Public Schools was the first Michigan school district to switch their entire bus fleet over to B20 (20 percent soy biodiesel fuel and 80 percent regular petroleum diesel) back in 2002.
Wayne Hettler, Garage Foreman & Head Mechanic for St. John’s Public Schools for over seven years said, “There is much less smoke at the B20 level and both the mechanics and bus drivers have noted the difference, not to mention the kids. After all, we’re using soy biodiesel for the health benefits for all of us, the environment, and to support America’s soybean farmers.”
Hettler tracked statistics like the time the buses idle, the miles per hour they drive, oil analysis, and the mileage the buses get. Hettler said he noticed a cost savings on the extended intervals between oil changes. He noted his Internationals and Mercedes go 12,000-15,000 miles between oil changes and the Cummins about 8,000-10,000. The GM and Mitsubishi vehicles get oil changes on a regular basis as they are the service vehicles and don’t generate a lot of miles over a long time.
“I’m convinced,” noted Hettler, “that we are able to extend the oil changes because the B20 burns cleaner and isn’t dirtying the oil as quickly. We’re using oil analysis to determine the oil change times. We solely credit biodiesel for cleaning up the oil, thus saving the district the costs of oil, filters, labor and the like. We have our records for each bus before a single drop of biodiesel was ever put in the tank, up through our present usage. I challenge other fleets to ‘read’ their fleet records and make these cost-saving changes after switching to B20.”
