All About Alternate Fuel Vehicles (AFV)

By Pat Sherman,November 16, 2007
Source: SignsonSanDiego.com
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/northcounty/20071116-9999-lz1mi16green.html

For North County residents hoping to rack up green mileage, the demand for alternative fuels surpasses the supply. Finding the stuff can be difficult.  Oceanside businessman Bill Cox owns a branch of 1-800-Got-Junk, which hauls trash from homes and businesses to a landfill or recycling center. When the Vancouver-based company invited its franchise owners to operate one of their trucks on biodiesel for a six-month test, Cox jumped at the chance.

However, Cox discovered that closest source of biodiesel is the Pearson Fuels depot at 4001 El Cajon Blvd. in San Diego – about a 40-mile drive one way. The trip would negate the environmental benefits of the program.  “Isn’t that funny, (when) everybody is just screaming to be more green?” Cox said.

Although it will do little to solve Cox’s dilemma, Mike Lewis, co-owner of Pearson Fuels, is bringing ethanol to two North County stations. Ethanol is a substitute for gasoline typically made from corn or switchgrass.

The first station to offer ethanol, Bressi Ranch Fuel Mart at the southeast corner of El Fuerte Street and Gateway Drive in Carlsbad, is scheduled to open early next year.  The station will offer E85, a blend of 85 percent ethanol and 15 percent gasoline. E85 is intended for use in flex-fuel vehicles, which can run on any percentage of ethanol, from zero to 85 percent. There are currently about 500,000 such vehicles in the state, Lewis said.

When it opens, the Carlsbad one will become only the second one in the state to offer E85 to the public, the first being Pearson Fuels.  Lewis also plans to introduce E85 at a Texaco station in Oceanside next summer, as well as at locations in Palm Springs, El Centro and Sun City.

Last month, Lewis looked on as a tank that will hold 10,000 gallons of ethanol was lowered into the ground at the Bressi Ranch site. Station co-owner Fred Reed said he was happy to partner with Lewis to provide motorists an alternative to gasoline.

“I think there’s a great future in E85 fuel,” Reed said. “All the major car manufacturers right now are producing cars that are flexible-fuel vehicles that take E85 (and other less-polluting gas blends), so there’s a lot of interest.”

Earlier this year, Pearson Fuels was awarded $803,000 from the California Air Resources Board to develop eight E85 stations, including the Carlsbad and Oceanside locations.  Lewis said he hopes to offer biodiesel elsewhere, though funding and logistics make it a less viable option than ethanol.

“That would be one of our next phases,” Lewis said. “The demand is definitely growing … The government has grant money for biodiesel. We just didn’t happen to get any.”

San Diego-based New Leaf Biofuel received $590,000 from the Air Resources Board to produce biodiesel from the same $25 million grant pool.  Before purchasing biodiesel, consumers must first register with the Southern California Biodiesel Users Group. Pearson Fuels has about 500 registered customers, Lewis said.

Biodiesel is made from vegetable and soybean oils that are most often blended with petroleum-based diesel. Most vehicles with diesel engines can run on biodiesel.  Pearson currently sells 100 percent biodiesel, which vehicle owners may blend with regular diesel. Under 1-800-Got-Junk’s trial program, Cox would be permitted to use only B20, a blend of 20 percent biodiesel and 80 percent diesel – the most commonly used mix.

“They’re not going to have us go by McDonald’s and get the french fry (grease) and filter it – even through it could run (off that),” Cox said. “They’re worried about the warranty (with Isuzu) … because when you start using the biofuel, there is a problem with condensation, rusting the pipes from the inside out … They don’t want to deal with that, especially with the new trucks.”

According to the National Biodiesel Board, pure biodiesel can reduce emissions regulated by the Environmental Protection Agency by 50 percent, while B20 reduces these emissions by about 16 percent.

By contrast, some scientists debate the environmental benefits of ethanol, claiming that the energy required to grow corn and produce the fuel cancel out any reduction in greenhouse gas emissions.

“Environmentally, there’s a small percentage of scientists who are saying ethanol isn’t everything it’s cracked up to be – how much energy is used to pump the water to irrigate the corn? – that kind of thing,” Lewis said. “A lot of assumptions can be argued, but the preponderance of evidence is still in favor of ethanol.

“Corn is from Iowa and the oil is from Saudi Arabia,” Lewis said. “For every gallon of ethanol that goes in the vehicle, the huge majority of it, approaching 85 percent, is domestic and is renewable. … There’s no doubt that (crude) oil is not renewable and there’s no doubt that we’re going to run out of it. The only thing anybody debates is when. You can grow more ethanol.”

Ethanol also is easier to manufacture, Reed said.

“There’s no 18,000-foot (hole) in the Pacific Ocean … drilling crews and all that stuff,” he said.

The Carlsbad post office has 64 flex-fuel vehicles that Lewis expects will fuel up at Bressi Ranch.

Last month, some 72 ethanol manufacturing plants are under construction in the United States, while there are no new planned oil refineries, he said.

In environmentally and socially conscious California, however, ethanol has been moving toward the future at a snail’s pace. While Minnesota has about 200 E85 stations and Illinois about 100, the only E85 stations in California are Pearson Fuels and the state garage in Sacramento. Meanwhile, the majority of the state government’s 2,642 flex-fuel vehicles run on gasoline.

One of the chief obstacles to making ethanol available to the public here is that the equipment used to pump ethanol hasn’t been certified by the state , which has a more stringent and costly certification process than other states.

“Because there has not been the imminent pot at the end of the rainbow in ethanol for fuel equipment manufacturers in California and for gas station owners, there has not been a lot of effort and money into getting all this equipment certified,” Lewis said. “The people who make these ethanol pumps – (have) other potential places where they can sell this stuff.”

Since the machinery is not state-certified, Lewis had to apply research and development permits from the state.

“It’s basically a special authorization,” he said.

Dimitri Stanich, a spokesman with the California Air Resources Board, conceded that the process of making ethanol available has been slow.

“We’re avoiding putting all of our eggs in one basket,” Stanich said. “Historically, when you’re dependent on one source of anything, market manipulations are possible. We’re looking to diversify our fuel source as much as possible and ethanol would be one of those many sources of energy … (as well as) hydrogen, electricity, compressed natural gas and solar.”

Stanich said biodiesel is on the state’s radar screen, though at present not enough is being produced to create a statewide standard for it.

Russell Teall, vice-chairman of the nonprofit California Biodiesel Alliance, noted that there is already a national standard for biodiesel.

“There’s a standard for biodiesel and a standard for diesel fuel, but there’s no standard for the fuel once it’s been blended together,” Teall said. “That’s what the National Biodiesel Board and ASTM (American Standards Testing Bureau) and a lot of the auto manufacturers are working on now.

“The Air Resources Board has actually woken up to the fact that biodiesel could be a very good way of meeting some of the governor’s greenhouse gas goals,” Teall said. “They just want to make sure that when they’re promoting a new fuel or fuel additive that they’ve done all their due diligence. … Everyone would like to see it go faster, of course, but it just takes time to do these things.”

As for Cox, he’s considering installing a biodiesel tank in the back of his shop.

“I think that would be the next logical step,” he said.