December 18, 2006

Good Job, US Gov’t: A Move is Underway - Toward Transforming America’s Cars to Ethanol-Capable

Last week I went to the alternative-fuel car expo in Santa Monica, California. There were a lot of fun cars there like this:

There were also cars that are already on the road, like this:

I got the chance to speak to Jon Van Bogart, a Director of Sales & Marketing for CleanFuel USA.

Jon Van Bogart of CleanFuel USA. CleanFuel USA is a Member of the CEVC, which is Working on Providing Alternative, Domestic Fuels for California.

Here's info about his company, from it's web site:

Originally named Clean Fueling Technologies, company president Curtis Donaldson founded CleanFUEL USA in 1993, with a mission to build a company that would supply and support the propane motor fuel industry with quality refueling infrastructure. Since then Georgetown, Texas based CleanFUEL USA has established itself as the leading global manufacturer of certified and approved alternative fuel dispensing equipment for both propane (LPG) and E85 and has expanded its role as an industry leader by providing comprehensive alternative motor fuel programs for fleet managers throughout the world.

Jon stated that there are already 300,000 ethanol-capable vehicles on the road in California, and 5 million such vehicles on the road in the U.S. These vehicles can use any combination of traditional gasoline and ethanol.

Because so many such vehicles are already on the road, ethanol-capable fuel stations are currently being built in California. The US government is supporting this move with financing. From printed material handed to me by Jon:

The federal Department of Energy (DOE) announced that it has selected a strong collaborative team comprised of CALSTART, General Motors, Pacific Ethanol, CleanFUEL USA, Community Environmental Council and others to receive grant funding to jump start a major new alternative fuel network in the state. The grant would provide partial funding to build 15 publicly accessible E85 ethanol stations in California.

E85 ethanol is largely a renewable and domestic fuel. It consists of 85 percent ethanol and only 15 percent gasoline. However, there is currently only one public station that sells E85 ethanol (85% ethanol and 15% gasoline) in California, despite the fact the state has more than 300,000 flex-fuel cars capable of running on the fuel. This project will create the fundamental building blocks of an E85 refueling network and provide new fueling choices for the owners of those cars.

The California proposal scored high in a national competition largely as a result of the strength of the team. Among those on the full team are CALSTART, General Motors, CleanFuel USA, Pacific Ethanol, United Oil Company, Community Environmental Council, City of Tulare, the California Energy Commission, the California State Automobile Association, the South Coast Air Quality Management District, the San Joaquin Valley Clean Cities Coalition, and the Southern California Regional Clean Cities Coalition.

"I'm very pleased that the DOE has made this award to this very strong and impressive team from California" said Jim Boyd, Vice Chairman of the California Energy Commission. "Working together, we can build upon this initial DOE grant and will construct a major E85 network in California," said Boyd.

With this initial round of funding, ten E85 will be constructed at existing gas stations owned by United Oil in the greater Los Angeles metropolitan area. With four pumps going to stations along the highway 10 1 route from Ventura to San Luis Obispo County, motorists will be able to conveniently refill in that region. A final E85 pump will be installed in the San Joaquin Valley alongside Highway 99 in Tulare.

...There are approximately 1,000 E85 ethanol stations throughout the country. Most of the stations are based in the Midwest.

Ethanol for this project will be produced in California and supplied by Pacific Ethanol, a company headquartered in Madera, California. There are three existing ethanol plants in California and efforts underway to build four more by the end of 2007. Within the next two years, California ethanol production should reach 400 million gallons per year, an amount that would be significant enough to cover the demand from the E85 ethanol stations.

CALSTART and its fellow team members will begin work immediately and plan to have the first station operational within five to six months.

Jon stated that this activity was made possible by GWB's support for alternative fuels, in his 2006 State of the Union speech. While to many of us it has seemed that there has been little follow-up on GWB's part to that initiative, per Jon, the inclusion of this in the President's speech made this initiative official US government policy, and enabled the car industry to invest in an ethanol-capable vehicle strategy.

The goal of the California coalition working on providing ethanol fuel stations, is to have 200-500 new stations in California in the next 3-5 years.

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Categories: Energy Independence, Trends in Society

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