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Tuesday, February 28, 2006

Coming your way: ethanol stations

By DINAH VOYLES PULVER | News-Journal Environment Writer

DAYTONA BEACH — If you watched the Olympics or caught the truck race during Speed Weeks, it was hard to miss General Motors’ new “Live Green — Go Yellow” campaign.

The auto giant used both events to promote its flexible fuel vehicles that use either regular gas or E85, a blend of 85 percent ethanol and 15 percent gasoline.

So, what is all this talk about “Live Green — Go Yellow?”

Ethanol is considered a “green” fuel because the alcohol-based product is made primarily from corn, at least for now. If it sounds a little like moonshine, that’s because it’s made virtually the same way, which may seem a funny turn of events for NASCAR, with its early roots in illegal moonshine running.

Many drivers may not know it, but most cars, vans and trucks already can run on a fuel blended with 10 percent ethanol, which makes gas burn more efficiently and cleanly. It’s widely used in the Midwest, where ethanol has been made from homegrown corn for years.

But, as U.S. consumers push to reduce the country’s dependence on pricey foreign oil, expect to hear more about ethanol, and not just from GM. The company is one of three major manufacturers already turning out several flexible fuel models, to meet the demands of federal fuel efficiency legislation passed in the early 1990s.

President Bush even mentioned ethanol during his state of the union address and it was featured in his brother Jeb’s recently released Florida Energy Plan. National environmental groups are encouraged, but want to see a bigger commitment to reducing the reliance on oil.

“The situation is really serious,” said Carol Werner, executive director of the Environmental and Energy Study Institute in Washington, D.C.

Take the events of the last year for example, she said. Gas prices hit more than $3 a gallon. Hurricanes disrupted fuel supplies. And unrest continues where two-thirds of the world’s oil reserves are located.

“People are feeling increasingly anxious,” Werner said.

But if you’re anxious here, you can’t switch to ethanol just yet, unless you’re brewing it in the backyard like some do-it-yourselfers promote on the Internet. The GM E85 pace trucks used for the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Race on Feb. 17 were filled up in Detroit.

A half-dozen private E85 facilities take care of such fleets as the state Department of Transportation’s, but no public stations are available.

That may change this summer, said Tom Slunecka, executive director of the Ethanol Promotion and Information Council, especially if Floridians start asking for it.

The number of stations carrying ethanol blends nationwide is expected to double by the end of this year and more than triple to perhaps 2,000 stations by the end of 2007.

Florida-based U.S. EnviroFuels plans to break ground this summer on two ethanol production plants at the Port of Tampa and Port Manatee, which would make it easier for consumers to find ethanol.

“Our target for operational startup is September 2007,” the company’s president, Bradley Krohn, said Monday.

“Our ethanol would stay in state,” Krohn said. It would be delivered to fuel storage terminals in Tampa, Jacksonville and Port Everglades for blending.

Krohn plans to import the corn, but eventually hopes to work with Florida growers.

Charles Bronson, the state’s agriculture commissioner, is convinced ethanol has great potential here, both for consumers and farmers, said a spokesman. That’s because experts say ethanol potentially can be made from almost any agriculture-related product — from corn and sugar to citrus peel and the trimmings off trees cut for timber.

Not everyone sings ethanol’s praises. One study raised questions about whether it burns more energy to produce ethanol than it produces, though other studies have refuted that.

Some environmental groups would like to see a bigger push for electric and hydrogen vehicles.

That’s in the works, too, said Tom Stephens, vice president of GM’s powertrain division.

Ethanol isn’t a miracle cure, Stephens said. “There are many options out there, including cars and trucks with higher fuel efficiency.”

For GM, that runs the gamut from engines that can switch back and forth from four cylinders to eight depending on the situation to fleets of electric hybrid buses the company has in cities across the country.

As a fan of fast, powerful cars, Stephens is especially happy to say that the company isn’t sacrificing performance to produce engines that run on ethanol-blended fuels.

That will be tested later this year when the Indy Racing League’s Indy Car Series will switch to 10 percent ethanol blend and next year when the series plans to use 100 percent ethanol.

A look at ethanol

Q: What is ethanol?
A clean-burning fuel additive made from fermented crop grains such as corn that helps gasoline burn more efficiently. It may help to reduce carbon monoxide emissions by up to 30 percent. Technically, it’s ethyl alcohol, the same stuff found in beer, wine and liquor. It’s sold unbranded to gas refiners that blend it with gasoline and sell it to retail companies.

Q: Can I buy it here?
Not yet, but it may be available later this year.

Q: Can my regular gas station add an ethanol pump?
Yes. It doesn’t cost that much for stations to change one pump over to an ethanol blend, said General Motor’s Beth Lowery, vice president of environment and energy.

Q: Is ethanol cheaper at the pump?
Usually, mostly because it’s often exempted from gasoline taxes. It ranges from 5 cents to 35 cents a gallon less.

Q: Can my car use a gasoline blended with 10 percent ethanol?
Probably. All U.S. cars made since 1982 have fuel systems that can burn up to 10 percent ethanol.

Q: Could my car use E85, the 85 percent ethanol and 15 percent gasoline blend?
Possibly. GM and other car manufacturers have been producing flexible fuel capable vehicles for some popular models for several years. Check the fine print in your manual.

Q: How much ethanol is produced in the United States?
In 2003, more than 30 percent of all gasoline sold in the U.S. contained ethanol. Last year there were more than 4 billion gallons of ethanol produced in the U.S. About 100 facilities make ethanol in the U.S. and nearly 40 are planned or under construction.

Q: What else could be used to make ethanol?
Scientists are exploring the possibilities of such other natural materials as sugar beets, sugar cane, corn stalks, yard trash, leftovers from timber logging and recycled newspapers.

Q: What’s the situation with fuel in Florida?
Florida uses 8.6 billion gallons of gas each year, virtually all of it imported from elsewhere.

Source: National Ethanol Vehicle Coalition, General Motors, State of Florida and the Renewable Fuels Association.

Did You Know?

There are more than 3,500 different ways to use corn, including pudding, syrup, batteries, diapers, crayons, toothpaste and aspirin. Maybe that’s why growers in the United States harvested a record 11.8 billion bushels of corn in 2004. The average price was $1.95 a bushel.

The top four corn-producing states in order are Iowa, Illinois, Nebraska and Minnesota. They account for more than 50 percent of the corn grown in the U.S.

More than half the corn grown is used for livestock feed.

One ear of corn has about 800 kernels. One bushel of corn has 72,800 kernels. A bushel will make 2.8 gallons of ethanol, 33 pounds of sweetener or 31.5 pounds of starch.

Every ton of printing paper uses 28 pounds of cornstarch.

Compiled by Environment Writer Dinah Voyles Pulver. SOURCE: National Corn Growers Association

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