North Bay Construction Co., Ghilotti Construction Co. and Clover Stornetta Farms all have begun using blends of the vegetable-based fuel in the past several months, largely because of increased availability and the midsummer spike in diesel oil prices.

The moves reduce the amount of emissions produced by hundreds of backhoes, earthmovers, dump trucks and semi trucks used on projects ranging from the widening of Highway 101 to everyday deliveries of dairy products to local supermarkets.

"We believe long term, it's the right thing to do," said Mkulima Britt, vice president of finance for Clover Stornetta.

About two months ago the dairy products distributor, the largest in the North Bay, began using a 10 percent biodiesel blend in its fleet of about 100 semi trucks and farm tractors. The fuel, known as B-10, is a mixture of 10 percent biodiesel made from soy beans and 90 percent regular diesel.

The transition has been seamless, with no equipment performance problems and only a handful of minor maintenance upgrades - such as changing hoses on older equipment - needed to accommodate the new fuel, Britt said.

Ghilotti Construction, the largest road builder in the county, has reported an equally trouble-free transition to biodiesel. The company began using a 10 percent biodiesel blend in its fleet of about 150 trucks and heavy machines in August.

Equipment manager Damon Calegari said he initially opted for the conservative B-10 blend because he wanted to make sure there weren't performance issues with the new fuel.

"My biggest worry was we were right in the middle of the busy season, and I can't risk having a bunch of equipment shutting down because I make the switch to biodiesel," Calegari said.

The trucks, backhoes and earthmovers performed just as before, so well that the company last month increased the blend to 20 percent biodiesel, or B-20, Calegari said.

That fuel has performed equally as well, and the company would like to use an even higher blend in the future, he said. The company is now planning to begin using a 5 percent blend, or B-5, in its 100-strong on-road fleet in 2007, he said.

That would mean about 250 Ghilotti vehicles would be fueled with a biodiesel blend by next year.

Ghilotti's main competition, North Bay Construction, began testing biodiesel in a dozen off-road vehicles in May on the Canon Manor project in eastern Rohnert Park. That trial has gone well, and the company is planning to make the switch to B-20 next year for all 300 of its off-road machines, said company President Steve Geney.

Geney first became convinced of the potential for biodiesel after attending a seminar given by the Climate Protection Campaign, a local environmental advocacy group.

He says he's "tickled" to see so many other companies showing the same commitment his company has made to biodiesel. "It's exciting to me because now you've got the Number 1 and Number 2 (road construction) companies in the North Bay area and we're both going to (biodiesel)," Geney said. "Hopefully, the rest of our industry will follow suit."

North Bay Construction uses about 300,000 gallons of diesel fuel a year. Biodiesel costs about 25 cents more than regular diesel, Geney said. That means he's paying $75,000 a year more than he would otherwise.

That's a big number even for a company with $85million in revenue in 2005. But Geney says it's a small price to pay for sharply reducing their gas emissions.

Geney says he'd love to start using higher concentrations of biodiesel, perhaps as high as B-40, but that will depend largely on the equipment manufacturers.

Some won't honor warranties on equipment if biodiesel is shown to be the cause of equipment failure, he said.

Different manufacturers have different standards. John Deere, for example, recommends using only B-5, while Caterpillar allows up to B-30 without voiding warranties, those companies said.

Even wholesale conversion to low-level biodiesel blends can have a dramatic effect on emissions and oil importation.

John Deere calculates that if all the diesel engines in the United States began using a B-2 blend the country could reduce oil imports by 1.2billion gallons a year, according to spokesman Barry Nelson.

Ghilotti also will consider going to higher blends, but will need its equipment suppliers' support, Calegari said.

"I think we'll take it to the limit, but I'm not going to risk warranties' not being honored," he said.

Reducing biodiesel's cost is perhaps the single greatest challenge the industry faces, according to Jim Dalton, co-owner of Santa Rosa's Royal Petroleum. The commercial fuel supplier began offering biodiesel in significant volumes in 2004.

The company now brings the fuel in from the Midwest in rail cars and sells about 25,000 gallons a month, Dalton said.

In early August, diesel prices soared to about $3.40 a gallon, compared to biodiesel's relatively steady $3.12, making it attractive to a number of major commercial clients, Dalton said. That gave a "kick-start" to the demand for biodiesel.

Since then, regular diesel has dropped to about $2.65, while biodiesel has remained constant, making it less attractive, he said.

But the companies are committed to the new fuel and demand remains strong, he said.

"We're getting to the point now where it makes economic sense to build out a distribution system, but that's going to be a challenge," said Royal Petroleum co-owner Clif Hill.

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