A test run for using environmentally friendly fuel in Kansas University buses was enough to convince leaders to consider using the fuel on a permanent basis.

“Testing went rather well,” said Blake Huff, transportation coordinator for KU on Wheels, the campus student-run and student-funded bus system. “No major problems. It was just smooth. No news was good news, and that’s what we had.”

Two campus buses used biodiesel fuel, a mix of traditional diesel and a soy-based product, during the final two weeks of the school year.

The biodiesel is designed to reduce the clouds of black exhaust smoke that tend to follow KU on Wheels buses.

Now, Huff and others are crunching numbers to decide what the next step will be. Using the fuel on the two routes cost a total of $50 more than traditional diesel for the two-week period, Huff said.

“Right, now, it’s comparable with gas prices,” he said. “If gas prices were to go down, biodiesel would be significantly more expensive. In the long run, that’s what we’re looking at.”

He said the campus transportation board, which directs KU on Wheels, likely would decide to ease into biodiesel fuel – probably beginning next spring – instead of switching the entire fleet at once. One concern, he said, is how the fuel would react in the buses during winter.

“The feeling I have is if we can get the most environmentally friendly we can get, then that’s what people want and they’re willing to pay a little bit more for it, too,” Huff said.

6News video: KU on Wheels considers using biodiesel fuel (06-02-05)

Anton Bengtson, former transportation board chairman and current board member, said he hoped KU on Wheels eventually moved all its buses to the more environmentally friendly fuel.

“With the test run, I think everybody’s really excited for the potential of biodiesel fuel,” Bengtson said. “I think students like biodiesel as an option.”