May 12--Boston Duck Tours is starting to green its fleet.

The land-water tour company is replacing five of its 24 World War II amphibious vehicles known as DUKWs with more efficient modern replicas that'll run on biodiesel fuel.

The replacement program, which will continue each year, follows a scrubbed attempt to reconfigure the company's existing WWII vehicles that resulted in performance and noise issues.

"Diesel is actually more expensive than the regular gas, but it's much better for the environment and much safer," Brown said. "We've been trying to switch over the last few years, and we finally got to the point where the technology worked."

The $300,000 vehicles initially will run on a B5 biodiesel fuel blend that's 5 percent vegetable oil, according to director of vehicle maintenance Tony Cerulle. The vehicles' manufacturer will only cover the one-year warranty for their diesel engines if that mix is used.

"We'll probably go up to 40 percent or 50 percent (vegetable oil) after that," Cerulle said. "But the real savings is if you were to run straight vegetable oil or blend your own biodiesel."

The new vehicles will give passengers a smoother ride and should require less maintenance by the company. They also have 36 seats, four more than the WWII models.

"Four more seats per tour, per DUKW, per day will obviously add up to a lot of revenue," Brown said.

The names of the five biodiesel vehicles are Arborway Alex, Commonwealth Curley, Kenmore Karla, Molly Molasses and Copley Squire.

dgoodison@bostonherald.com

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