Neil Kelly Company's Goal

Our goal at Neil Kelly is to have our own practices set an environmental example for our clients, community, and other businesses. Our goal is to pursue technologies, practices and relationships that further our commitment to creating a more sustainable planet.

Opportunity: Biodiesel
Our delivery truck logs over 14,000 miles a year around the Portland metro area carrying building materials, and building waste. This delivery truck is vital to our operations but the harmful effects of pollution from automobiles are well documented. We recognized this as an area of our daily practices that could be improved with a more sustainable technology. Neil Kelly Company uses 100% domestically produced biofuel that comes from virgin soybean crops and thus significantly reduces our dependence of foreign oil supplies.

Opportunity: B50
The industry standard of B20 is positive step but Neil Kelly is taking a further step to use B50 and higher. Neil Kelly Company will blend 50% biodiesel and 50% petrol-diesel in its delivery truck. By developing an infrastructure that allows us to have a permitted and economically feasible tank on site we are able to blend a ratio that will give us the environmental benefits we are looking for while allowing us to custom blend to the temperature requirements and our economic constraints. This will exceed the industry standard of a 20% biodiesel to 80% petrol-diesel ratio. Going above the industry standard will mean an even greater reduction in emissions and dependency on foreign oil.

Barrier: Few Biodiesel Filling Stations
In the business of remodeling and new home construction time is money and we needed a system that would allow our truck to run on biodiesel with a minimum disturbance to its schedule. At our location in Northeast Portland there was not a convenient place to fill our tank.

Barrier: Permitting
At the heart of Neil Kelly Company's core values is a commitment to doing things properly and always legally. We needed to find a 250 gallon above ground storage tank that would meet the city's requirements for handling 100% biofuel. With all parties involved being new to the idea of biofuel, questions of flammability and toxicity had to be researched.

Barrier: Cost of Tank
Although biofuel has been permitted in the city before, it has been permitted to be held in containers that meet the very stringent requirements of gasoline or oil. These double walled steel containers are very expensive. For a 250 gallon tank they typically cost $4,000 -$5,000.

Neil Kelly Company's Solution:
Working closely with the Portland Fire Marshall the city approved the use of a heating oil rated tank inside of a 110% containment sump. Neil Kelly Company was able to demonstrate that the low flammability of biofuel makes it unnecessary to hold it in a gasoline rated tank and that it is about as toxic as vegetable oil. This reduced the cost by 75% to $1,200. Since October we have been running our delivery truck on a B50 blend. We fill the truck tank at our warehouse, where our tank is located, half full with B100 and then fill the rest of the truck tank with low-sulfur petrol-diesel from local retail pumps. This allows us to run a custom blend and fill up at a central location.
Neil Kelly Company sees this solution as the best way to minimize the harmful pollutants generated by our truck at this time. Ultimately Neil Kelly would like to see many more retail locations around the city and state.

Tom Kelly the president of Neil Kelly added, "This is an important step towards creating a market transformation." Kelly believes by developing this intermediate step which provides an easy way for a consumer to regularly purchase biodiesel that it will increase the demand for biodiesel and in turn will encourage retail stations to provide the fuel at locations throughout the city.

Neil Kelly Company's Results
Environmental: A 50% blend of biofuel and diesel reduces Carbon Dioxide emissions by 40%, Carbon Monoxide by 24%, emitted particulate matter by 30% and total unburned hydrocarbons by 32%. In total, these reductions assist in the reduction of emissions that are a leading cause of cancer.

Performance:
To date the engine has been performing very smoothly and running more quietly that on traditional diesel. There was no cost to convert to biodiesel and there as been no biodiesel related maintenance.

Neil Kelly Company is interested in helping other companies set up their own biodiesel tanks by providing useful information on equipment and fuel suppliers. Please contact Erik Churchill with any questions at 503.335.9289.

Neil Kelly Company was established in 1947 and has grown to become a leading single-source home improvement firm, specializing in design-build remodeling, handyman home repairs and custom home building. Neil Kelly has showrooms in Portland, Lake Oswego, and Eugene, Oregon.