Bio-fuels possible for Metro Tasmania’s buses

From a report in The Mercury,
9 March 2007

Metro have been trialling the use of a bio-fuel mix, in place of diesel, on two buses in their 215-strong Hobart fleet.

The University of Tasmania is blending the oil-fuel replacement. The new fuel can be used without modifying the vehicle engines.

If diesel prices continue to rise it will become cost-effective to change the fleet to bio-fuel. Local farmers would be approached to grow oil-seed crops for a Tasmanian production plant.

Studies have been done to investigate the possibility of converting Metro buses to natural gas but it was found that the costs were too high.