SEATTLE -- The gas station of the future -- unmanned, fronted by crops and serving only biodiesel fuel from four dispensers -- will open in March in Seattle. 

The station’s owner, Propel Biofuels of Seattle, hopes that its presence at a prime intersection, which is passed by more than 60,000 vehicles a day, will allow it to capture car and business fleet traffic, said co-founder and President Rob Elam.

Propel Biofuels sells biodiesel, which is generated from crops and can power diesel engines, via dispensers at locations near the station, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer reports. 

By the end of 2008, the company hopes to add similar biodiesel dispensers to 20 gas stations in Western Washington. In late August, Propel Biofuels said it had raised $4.75 million from venture capital firms to fund the expansion.

There will be no gasoline pumps, convenience store or, for that matter, regular employees. Landscaping will include canola, camilina, switch grass and soybeans -- crops used to create biofuel. And customers will serve themselves from four biodiesel dispensers with two grades of biodiesel: B99 and B20.

The station will allow Propel Biofuels to take on more fleet business because it can handle multiple vehicles at once, Elam said. One biodiesel pump at the station will deliver a higher flow of biodiesel to accommodate trucks with larger tanks, Elam said. 

“We would love to get the new Microsoft buses running on biodiesel,” he said.

There are several other independent sellers of biofuel in the region. One, Dr. Dan’s Biodiesel, which gets its fuel from a farmer-owned co-op in the Midwest, has been selling biodiesel in Ballard since 2001.