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Alternative
Fuel Vehicles By
Terry Davis It used to be you had a choice at gas stations — premium or regular — and both came with full-service. Today, there is regular unleaded, which in Minnesota means a state-mandated 10-percent ethanol blend with an 87 octane rating, sometimes an 89- or 90-octane fuel which could be leaded or unleaded, and an unleaded 91- or 92-octane premium fuel that is suppose to be used in only certain vehicles and recreational machines. A handful of stations offer E85, an 85 percent ethanol and 15-percent petroleum gasoline blend. Ready for the market or soon to be are bio-diesel and hydrogen for flexible-fueled vehicles and hybrid vehicles that will mate petroleum or some other type of internal combustion engine with an electrical generator that can produce gas mileages of more than 60 miles per gallon. This country’s involvement in Iraq and the Middle East can be loosely linked to our addiction to the region’s oil reserves. Thus attempts to increase gas mileage or replace gasoline as a major fuel is seen by some Americans as a way to not only improve our environment, but also wean us from our reliance on imported oil and all its associated social and economic costs. Ethanol
current king In 1997, the Minnesota Legislature required regular gasoline to have an oxygen content of 2.7 percent by weight for cleaner burning. Ethanol has been the additive of choice to meet that law and similar ones enacted in other states. Ethanol supporters say it reduces tailpipe emissions of greenhouse gases by nearly 30 percent. That has led to the development of more than 20 ethanol plants across rural Minnesota, with new ones on the drawing boards at all times. The latest is a proposed 40-million gallon plant announced earlier this month for Kandiyohi County. The $60 million Bushmills Ethanol Inc. facility will be built near Atwater after a site near Litchfield was turned down. Plants in Winthrop and Buffalo Lake have been operating for five years or more. In recent years, several major automakers have offered “flexible-fuel vehicles” designed to run on gasoline or any ethanol blend up to 85 percent. Because they are not designed specifically for E85, and because ethanol contains less energy than gasoline per gallon, the vehicles often get 5 percent to 15 percent fewer miles per gallon than regular fuel vehicles. The price at the pump is usually lower to compensate. Among the vehicles designed as FFVs, are some Ford Explorers, Ranger pickups, and Taurus sedans; some Dodge minivans, Ram pickups, Sebring and Stratus sedans; and some General Motors Suburbans, Tahoes, and Yukons, and Sierra and Silverado pickups. About
100,000 FFVs have been registered in Minnesota. FFVs have modified fuel tanks, fuel lines, injectors, computer systems and gauges to resist the corrosiveness of the alcohol. “We have a flexible-fuel, 5.3 liter V8 engine in the half-ton Suburbans and Tahoes, and the same motor in the half-ton Silverado pickup,” said Shane Stenberg, a salesman at Valley Sales in Hutchinson, a General Motors dealer. Stenberg said Valley has sold several FFVs. One salesman drove a FFV Tahoe as a demonstrator and used E85 whenever he could. “He said it was great and didn’t notice any fuel difference at all,” Stenberg said. E85 is currently available in Hutchinson only at the Freedom station on State Highway 7 East, and is usually 10 cents per gallon cheaper than the 10-percent ethanol blend gasoline. But not everyone is happy with E85 fuel economy. Lenny Thiel, the U.S. Postal Service’s maintenance person in Hutchinson, said the fleet of trucks the post office has used don’t come close to the mileage older, gasoline-powered vehicles got. “To tell the truth, it has not been a good thing. Mileage has dropped dramatically, by about a third, and we’ve had problems with them,” Thiel said. “It also is recommended you use a flex-fuel oil at about $5 to $7 per quart, because regular oil doesn’t dissipate the alcohol.” Thiel said part of the mileage drop could be the result of the newer vehicles having a 4.0-liter Ford engine, compared to a 2.8-liter GM engine in the trucks they replaced. Farmers
get behind bio-diesel Bio-diesel and soy-diesel are terms often used interchangeably, but they should not be. Soy-diesel can be made into bio-diesel fuels for diesel engines, but should not be used unless it have been filtered, clarified and esterified to remove glycerin that acts like sugar in the fuel tank. Using unprepared soy-diesel can ruin a diesel engine. Hydrogen as a fuel has gained some supporters in recent years. The Upper Midwest Hydrogen Initiative has a six-year plan that works toward building an $18 million network of nine hydrogen fuel stations in such cities as Moorhead, Duluth and Des Moines, according to a recent Associated Press story. But some researchers are beginning to downplay the longterm viability of hydrogen as a vehicle fuel and urge further study before making investments in fuel infrastructure. While hydrogen is seen as being able to reduce air pollution, slow global warming and reduce our dependence on foreign oil, other alternatives may work better, some scientists now say. Hydrogen fuel cells may be a route to pursue for such vehicles as railroad locomotives, large trucks and vessels. One alternative method is to raise the standard fuel economy of the vehicles on American roads today, or by raising fuel costs through taxes. How
about a hybrid Gas/electric hybrids are already available from some import manufacturers such as Honda and Toyota. They achieve a high reduction in emissions (up to 80 percent in some models), and boast of gas mileage of 60 mpg or more. The Honda Insight, a sporty two-seater, was the first HEV available in late 1999. Its EPA mileage is rated at 61 city and 70 highway. It achieves that with a light, 1.0-liter, 3-cylinder engine. Toyota offers the Prius as a five-passenger vehicle sold in Japan since late 1998. It has a 1.6-liter, 4-cylinder engine producing 70 horsepower. Its mileage is about 48 mpg combined. Hybrids are currently significantly higher priced than equivalent gas-powered cars and may take up to 10 years or more to recover that initial extra investment. That is why some automakers, such as Ford’s CEO, have recently suggested the federal government needs to continue to offer tax incentives to improve the market for the vehicles. Domestic automakers have plans to enter the hybrid field later this year or in 2005. Dodge plans to offer a Ram pickup, while Ford has announced a hybrid Escape. GM has pickups in the works, first, followed by SUVs, the Malibu sedan and Saturn VUE SUV. “We know it is in the works, but we aren’t sure when, or if, it will be available here,” Hutchinson Auto Center General Manager Dean Wagnild said of the Ford Escape. Wagnild agreed with William C. Ford Jr.’s recent claim that tax incentives will be needed to make the cars competitively priced. The foreign makers have the incentive of high gas prices at home to help push hybrids. “How many people are going to come in and ask to buy a $25,000 Escape, when the current base model is $19,000?” Wagnild wondered. “We are still hooked on our SUVs. We want big vehicles. Will the American consumer sacrifice them to move toward higher miles per gallon?” |
