Soaring gas prices, due in part to the War in Iraq, have Americans talking a lot about alternative fuels. Most of that talk has centered on ethanol, which can be easily distilled from fermented corn sugars, but also biodiesel and even natural gas, propane and electricity. All of those fuels can be easily produced in the U.S., they’re better for the environment than gasoline or diesel, and they’re generally easier on the wallet (sometimes significantly so) than our standard fuels.

So why aren’t you pumping your car full of good ol’ American rocket fuel?

Phillip Weidmeyer knows why – in fact, it’s his job to help us recover from what President Bush calls our “addiction to oil.” Weidmeyer is the president and chairman of a Hoover-based non-profit organization called the Alabama Clean Fuels Coalition (ACFC). He says that alternative fuels face several challenges today  – consumer education and distribution are among them, but lack of infrastructure is the primary concern.

“With alternative fuels, it’s kind of like the chicken and the egg,” Weidmeyer says. “You can’t have the fuel unless you have the vehicles, and you can’t have the vehicles unless you have the fuel.”

The ACFC has given grants to station owners willing to install ethanol or biodiesel pumps across the state. In addition, it has partnered with organizations in three other states to install a “biofuels corridor” along I-65, from Lake Michigan to the Gulf of Mexico. ACFC opened the first pump in Alabama on March 10, and they plan to open five more with their first round of funding.

Auto manufacturers are starting to do their part, too. At this date, there are more than 40 models of “FlexFuel” cars sold in the U.S. that can run on E85 (a blend of 85 percent ethanol with 15 percent gasoline) or gasoline, and most cars manufactured in recent years can run on E10. The best part? FlexFuel cars don’t cost the consumer any more than cars with gasoline engines.

In 2007, the U.S. produced about 6.5 billion gallons of ethanol, made primarily from corn. But Weidmeyer says that the future for Alabama is cellulosic ethanol, which is ethanol produced from trees, branches, switchgrass, kudzu and other plant life.

“While we don’t grow corn very well, we can grow the hell out of pine trees,” Weidmeyer says.

Researchers at Auburn University are also working on a way to produce biodiesel from algae. Weidmeyer says algae production might produce up to 100 times more fuel per acre than traditional feed crops like soybeans. Though algae production is years away, cellulosic ethanol will be produced commercially in the next couple of years – one demonstration facility is set to open in Alabama later this year.

Despite our lack of corn-growing prowess, Alabama has had a lot of success with ethanol. Hoover is the best example; that city’s model is being replicated across the state and throughout the nation. In 2003, the ACFC gave a grant to Hoover to install an E85 pump at their fleet management facility. At that time, Hoover had only 14 FlexFuel vehicles, but now the city has converted its entire police fleet.

“They are now the largest municipal law enforcement agency that operates on E85,” Weidmeyer says. “They have over 183 Flex-Fuel vehicles, they use about 22,000 gallons a month of E85, they’ve driven over 7.5 million miles over that time period.” The Hoover program has displaced about a half-a-million barrels of foreign oil so far.

Hoover has also installed biodiesel pumps for their heavy-duty vehicles, and the city has even been making its own homegrown blend. Hoover’s fleet manager, David Lindon, installed a small, Alabama-made waste vegetable oil conversion system about a year ago. Now he’s producing 55 gallons a day of biodiesel for about $.75 a gallon (compared to $3.89 at the pump) with no additional manpower. Lindon says the city’s initial investment was paid back in 202 days. The Hoover fleet has seen other benefits too – the fleet vehicles now receive oil changes every 5,000 miles instead of 3,000 because biofuels are better for engines. The City of Hoover also saves on sewer maintenance: they get their waste vegetable oil from local restaurants and residents, so less oil is being poured down the drains.

Alabama has enjoyed success with other fuels as well. ACFC Executive Director Mark Bentley says the Birmingham-Jefferson County Transit Authority displaced over a million gallons of foreign oil over a year’s time by running a large portion of their bus fleet on compressed natural gas. CNG is the cleanest and cheapest of all the fuels, and the BJCTA has a public CNG pump, but if you want to run your car on it you’ll have to install a conversion kit that might run you several thousand dollars.

Other alternative fuels include propane and electricity. Propane, like CNG, requires a conversion kit but it is readily available to the consumer. Electric cars had a bad reception when they were first introduced, but major manufacturers like Toyota and GM are set to introduce plug-in hybrid-electric vehicles in 2010.

Using alternative fuels requires some real change, but Weidmeyer thinks it’s the kind of change we can live with: “With all of these alternative fuels, we’re talking about new jobs, and new economic activity, and new tax revenues that are going to be generated from that. But it’s economic activity that’s good for the environment, reduces our dependence on foreign oil, and better for public health.”

Where to buy alternative fuels in Birmingham

Ethanol
Dogwood Shell, 1488 Montgomery Highway, Vestavia Hills

Biodiesel
Dogwood Shell, 1488 Montgomery Highway, Vestavia Hills
Cowboy’s 280, 5492 Highway 280 East, Birmingham
Coosa Mart, 3560 Hwy. 31 South, Pelham

Compressed Natural Gas
Birmingham Jefferson County Transit Authority, 3105 8th Avenue North, Birmingham