Availability of E85 pumps could almost double by the end of 2007
There are about 170,000 filling stations in the United States right now, but according to the Renewable Fuels Association only about 1,100 of those were selling E85 at the beginning of 2007. This poses a problem for the owners of the six million flex-fuel cars and trucks that have been put on the road since 1998 and the million more that are expected to be added this year. The RFA expects the number of E85 pumps to climb to somewhere between 1,500 and 2,000 by the end of this year and really take off in 2008. One of the main stumbling blocks has been Underwriters labs. In many locations fire codes require fuel pumping equipment to be UL Certified. UL recently finished their testing and is expected to start certifying new equipment later this year.[Source: Wards Auto World]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
1985 Gripen 3:35PM (4/10/2007)
The question shouldn't be "how many", but "where". Most of the existing E85 pumps are located in the midwest in states where the state heavily subsidizes the fuel because of the number of corn farming interests in the state. Also, the ethanol has to be transported by train or truck and no ethanol pipeline exists, so most of the stations are located close to the source of the ethanol.
The majority of the population in the U.S. (and thus the majority of the flex-fuel cars) is located on the coasts, yet there are VERY few (too few to make any kind of difference) E85 pumps there.
Rather than put yet ANOTHER E85 pump in Minnesota or Illinois or South Dakota and claim another victory, there needs to be a concerted effort to put them in heavily populated urban centers.
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Karkus 4:05PM (4/10/2007)
Also, based on recent posts, it seems that the ethanol production is supply limited (corn) right now. Therefore, it seems that even if they put E85 at every gas station, there wouldn't be enough ethanol to supply all those E85 vehicles anyway. Is that a reasonable concern?
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Joseph 7:45PM (4/10/2007)
Someone in my neighborhood has a car that has a flex-fuel badge; the closest E85 stations is over 400 miles away.
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1985 Gripen 6:55PM (4/10/2007)
Karkus, a lot of states like my own homestate of California converted all their unleaded gasoline pumps to dispense only "gasohol" (E10) a few years ago. I think there are other states which have done the same thing, but with California's demand alone it's got to be quite a drain on resources.
I wouldn't worry too much about supply too much in the long term. Higher prices encourage farmers to harvest more corn and we're far from utilizing all of our available farmland at this point. Maybe short-term price hikes in corn and ethanol pricing, but a few harvests away we'll probably have to start paying them to STOP planting corn again...
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1985 Gripen 6:57PM (4/10/2007)
Sorry I forgot to mention it in my last comment, but also remember that current ethanol production methods only allow the conversion of the corn kernals themselves into ethanol. The majority of the crop (husks, stalks, etc) is wasted. As they roll-out cellulosic ethanol which is much less wasteful the yields will go up and the prices will likely come down.
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Bob from ALAMN 11:09AM (4/11/2007)
Elect local lawmakers willing to invest in alternative fuels and you'll get your E85 pumps, Gripen. That's the first step. You also need to form coalitions and partneships with diverse groups -- farmers, automakers, government, petroleum retailers, envrirnmentalists -- hire full-time staff, obtain public and private (most important!) grants, convince drivers and station owners that E85 is a good thing, etc..
Then the real work begins.
We are not satisfied with our 300+ E85 pumps in Minnesota. We want 1,700 within five years.
Want cellulosic ethanol? Easy! Just move tons of biomass from the commercial switchgrass farms that haven't been created to the cellulosic ethanol plants that have not been built and use the new process that has not been invented yet to create a fuel identical to corn-based ethanol we use now.
As I often say, I hope the ethanol of the future becomes a reality sooner rather than later. The RFA is right that we need the E85 pump infrastructure ready soon if cellulosic ethanol every becomes anything other than a "good idea." This takes time -- and that's something we all agree is running out.
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