Cars On Alcohol, Part 12: Methanol Rental Cars
By Green Car Journal Editors
While methanol and ethanol vehicle activities continued to unfold in the mid-1990s, it was evident that other alternative fuels were also gaining momentum. Natural gas and electric vehicles in particular were becoming the focus of both government and industry, with initial forays into gasoline-electric hybrids also emerging. This didn't stop alcohol fuel vehicle development or marketing activities, as the following reports indicate. These stories are reprinted verbatim from early issues of Green Car Journal to illustrate how the path to today's E85 flexible-fuel vehicles unfolded over time.
METHANOL ACTIVITIES IN JAPAN
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED AUGUST 1994 Japan’s
Agency of Natural Resources and Energy is supporting plans to put
2000 methanol fueling stations into operation by the end of the
century. The Fire Defense Agency is also developing storage tank
and fire prevention standards for methanol filling stations.
Researchers at Japan’s Ministry of International Trade and
Industry (MITI) expect the country to have 2.5 million alternative-fueled
vehicles in use by 2010. Possible fuels? MITI has expressed interest
in electricity, natural gas, methanol, hydrogen, and liquefied petroleum
gas as vehicle fuels, and plans are in the works to ultimately develop
stations for refueling vehicles running on all of these fuels.
LOW-COST ETHANOL PRODUCTION
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED SEPTEMBER 1994 Researchers at the U.S. DOE's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) have developed a process that may reduce the cost of producing ethanol from biomass. Currently, most ethanol producers use yeast to ferment glucose, a six-carbon sugar that comprises the major component of most biomass feedstocks. The bacterium Zymomonas mobis has been found to be more efficient than yeast for ethanol production. NREL has genetically engineered a strain of Zymomonas that can ferment xylose, a five-carbon sugar, in addition to glucose. The new bacterium is said to greatly expand the percentage of feedstocks that can be fermented into ethanol.
When used with low-cost feedstocks like sawdust and agricultural residues, the process is expected to lower the cost of biomass-derived ethanol from its current price of approximately $1.20 per gallon to $0.60-$0.70 per gallon.
Amoco will be the first to commercially apply the new process. The research was supported by DOE's Biofuels Energy Systems/Biochemical Conversion Program.
HERTZ ADDING HUNDREDS OF FFVs TO RENTAL FLEETS
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED DECEMBER 1994 Rental car giant Hertz will be adding 400 examples of Ford's flexible-fuel Taurus to its fleets at four California airports: Los Angeles International, Orange County, Ontario, and Burbank. The vehicles run on any combination of gasoline and M85 methanol.
Additional methanol refueling facilities will also be added at a cost of $1.98 million, partially offset by a $400,000 grant from the South Coast Air Quality Management District (SCAQMD). The decision to pursue methanol was reportedly inspired by Hertz' exposure to SCAQMD's methanol vehicle fleet.
Rental cars are deemed good exposure for AFVs since they provide the public first-hand experience with these vehicles, something they might not get otherwise. Not insignificantly, the six-month turnover of rental fleet cars will also serve to increase the number of AFVs on the road.
Clean air regulations pose special challenges to rental car fleets because the vehicles don?t have the limited number of drivers and dedicated routes of many fleet vehicles. This means, depending on the fuel, that the driver must be trained in refueling and may have trouble finding the alternative fuel at a convenient location.
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