Propel Opening More Ethanol Pumps in California
Propel Fuels is opening more pumps with 85 percent ethanol for California flex fuel vehicle (FFV) drivers.
The company held a grand opening event in Oakland this week to formally launch a network of renewable fuel stations for the Bay Area, which will include more than 20 stations across the Bay, with up to half opening by the end of this year. The event also announced a $10.9 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and California Energy Commission (CEC) to build and operate 75 retail renewable fuel stations throughout California over the next two years.
At the grand opening, California Energy Commissioner Anthony Eggert (pictured) said the station development project, known as the Low Carbon Fuel Infrastructure Investment Initiative (LCFI3), will help the state with the development and deployment of low carbon fuels and clean vehicles. “The Energy Commission is proud to team up with Propel Fuels and the partner agencies to bring next generation low carbon biofuels, including cellulosic ethanol, to the nearly half a million flex fuel vehicle customers in California, while creating hundreds of green jobs, and continuing to lead the way in our nation’s battle against climate change,” said Eggert.
Propel will work with community partners CALSTART and East Bay Clean Cities to educate consumers and fleets on the wide spread benefits of low carbon, alternative fuels available today and those next generation fuels coming in the future.
“Presently in California more than one million diesel and Flex Fuel passenger cars are capable of running on renewable fuels, but there hasn’t been a sufficient number of renewable fuel stations,” said John Boesel, President and CEO of CALSTART. “This program takes a major step forward by creating 75 new renewable stations which will give consumers the choice to say ‘no’ to oil dependence, ‘yes’ to the American economy and ‘yes’ to the environment.”
Propel has already begun construction of the station locations in major markets across California, with the network of 75 stations funded by this project to be complete by the end of 2011. Currently there are three locations open in the Bay Area (Fremont, Oakland, South San Jose) with additional sites planned for Downtown San Jose, North San Jose, Berkeley, Palo Alto, Redwood City, Livermore, and Concord in the coming months.
Thanks to Jamie Quick with Propel and Paul Wikoff for the photos from the event.
7 Comments »
Juilia
‘no’ to oil dependence, ‘yes’ to the American economy and ‘yes’ to the environment.”
Is it a true that in order to produce ethanol, chemicals are needed from oil?
Bob Winnson
It depends on the word “need.” As it stands today, so much equipment, machinery, and trucks are fueled with petroleum, that yes petroleum is a component in growing the plants (which capture the sunlight) that become the biofuels like ethanol. However, if those machines, equipment, and trucks were fueled with ethanol or biodiesel, it would complete a loop of biofuels being used in the production of plants, resulting in a net increase in fuel supply (due to sunlight and CO2 combining to form plant sugars). Numerous manufacturers are working on this in recent years, including John Deere, Caterpillar, CNH, and others.
http://www.deere.com/en_US/rg/infocenter/biodiesel/what_biodiesel_means/index.html
http://www.northbaybiz.com/General_Articles/General_Articles/Buying_into_Biodiesel.php
As to chemicals, yes there are chemicals used in modern farming, though those are reduced in toxicity and amount applied per acre from past decades. As well, an interesting coproduct of ethanol production has begun to be used as a replacement to herbicides. Increasing the production of biofuels increases the availability of that coproduct to decrease the use of petroleum chemicals in the future.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/07/080702101346.htm
No alternative to petroleum is completely perfect. Today, the cheapest way to provide hydrogen is by using fossil fuels. So it is with methanol, electricity, and other alternatives, even wind energy (mining the iron ore, refining the iron, manufacturing the wind turbines, trucking and set up, paint, maintenance). We can be assured though that if we do not push forward with alternatives, we will keep being dependent upon foreign petroleum. Gasoline and diesel are 100% petroleum (until biofuels are blended in). Biofuels are far under 100% petroleum; even corn ethanol produces over 2 units of energy for each fossil fuel energy unit expended (and only part of that is petroleum, so it’s more like 6 units produced for each expended), and advanced forms will provide several times more than that.
Tui Wilschinsky
There are many people in Sonoma County that would like to have an ethanol station here thanks to the work of the Green Energy Network and the Sebastopol Ethanol Collective. Are there any plans to build one here and if not how might one go about making this happen?
Bob Winnson
Growth Energy, Renewable Fuels Association, and American Coalition for Ethanol are the main organizations helping to get ethanol stations up and going. Propel Fuels is one of the West Coast companies that puts in their own stations–guess it depends on if you want to own and run a station, or get one of the companies to put in one of theirs. Department of Energy/Clean Cities is also a very good resource, as well as California Energy Commission. Contact these organizations and let your petition be known. I like seeing grassroots organizations like GEN making progress (found the website):
http://www.greenenergynetwork.com/pages/welcome.htm
Mike Massey
Thank you Propel for providing the necessary competitive force that will hopefully push the herd of indecisive fuel station owners to now provide American consumers with the freedom to choose what fuel they want to buy – either from despotic OPEC controlled-petroleum gasoline or from U.S. farm free-market competitive ethanol.
Propel Sends Out a Thank You to Its Customers - Domestic Fuel
[...] in bringing biofuels such as ethanol and biodiesel to drivers. Earlier this month, Propel opened a new E85 station in Oakland, California, just one of nearly two dozen planned for the Bay area. Also this summer, Propel [...]
Daniel D Martin
great plan!
this could move other gas stations to carry E-85 as well
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