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E85: Fuel of the future?
Focus, Friday, May 12, 2006, p. a15
Dallas Hansen
In Chicago last month I bought a used car, and, because the tank was
nearly empty, filled it with gasoline. Next to the regular, mid-grade,
and premium pump nozzles was another option, labelled "E85." Although
it had been a while since I had pumped gas into a motor vehicle, the
availability of E85 -- 85 per cent ethanol fuel blended with 15 per
cent gasoline -- left me unsurprised. In recent years I had, in my
voracious daily readings, read many times about flex-fuel vehicles and
85 per cent ethanol gas. This is, I thought, 2006; cars are running on
ethanol now. Flex-fuel sensors, which allow a vehicle to use E85,
straight unleaded gasoline, or any combination of the two, are standard
equipment on many new cars.
Through Illinois, Wisconsin, and Minnesota, E85 was offered at every
gas station at which I filled. Back in Winnipeg, however, I rolled up
to a pump and wondered: Where's the E85?
If you're driving a provincial or federal government fleet vehicle, the
E85 is at Notre Dame and Dublin, where a filling station was opened
just this March. If, however, you're driving your own private vehicle,
you'll have to distill your own, as some Midwestern motorists are
doing. E85 is not commercially available in Manitoba.
Why would a supply line that's consistent throughout the Midwestern
U.S. suddenly halt at the border?
Most Manitobans are familiar with E10 gasohol, a 10 per cent
ethanol/gasoline blend manufactured and marketed at Mohawk gas
stations. Mohawk, which has since been acquired by Husky Energy Inc.,
began producing ethanol at its Minnedosa plant in 1981. While current
capacity is 10 million litres annually, look for a 13-fold increase in
production in mid-2007 when the new Minnedosa plant now under
construction comes online. But don't look for E85. According to Husky
vice-president Vince Chin, the company has no plans to commercially
market E85 in 2007. The production increase is rather to satisfy the
provincial government's mandate that gasoline sold in the province
contain 10 per cent ethanol.
Chin says the commercial availability of E85 is "contingent upon a
number of things. It's like a chicken-and-egg effect." You need, he
says, the demand before there's the availability, and the availability
before there's the demand. But many cars sold in Manitoba since 2001
are already flex-fuel capable, even if their owners don't yet know it,
and cheap, after-market kits are now available to convert many
late-model vehicles to E85 readiness.
Jared Carlberg, a University of Manitoba agribusiness professor,
doesn't know where the E85 is either. In fact, he was surprised when I
revealed to him the extent of E85's availability in the Midwestern
states.
"The buck kind of stops at the Canadian border," he said. "It's not
really clear why."
"At 75 bucks a barrel it makes a lot more sense to start investigating
these non-traditional fuels."
Other countries are doing it. E85 is widely available in Sweden, and in
Brazil "total flex" vehicles can use 100 per cent ethanol, readily
available at the pump, or any proportion of ethanol mixed with gasoline.
Finally, I spoke to Shaun Loney, director of energy policy for the
Manitoba government.
"You'll have a difficult time," he said, "finding E85 anywhere in
Canada, for the simple reason that the federal government hasn't
stepped up to the plate yet." Whereas the U.S. federal government
offers generous incentives for the ethanol industry, Canada's
incentives fail to match even those given to the oil and gas industry.
Rest assured, however, that E85 is coming. According to Loney, ethanol
distillation, which in Manitoba currently comes from wheat (and in the
U.S. comes primarily from corn), is moving to straw cellulose, which
produces proportionately more ethanol. And as a by-product of producing
ethanol from wheat, you get distiller's grain, a high-protein livestock
feed that comprises up to 35 per cent of revenues from ethanol
production.
"Not only is this a homegrown solution to energy security," said Loney,
"it's an important part of our overall economic development strategy."
Which makes good sense for Manitoba, as the agricultural industry
becomes, in one sense, a fuel industry. Archer Daniels Midland, the
"supermarket to the world," is fast becoming known as "the Exxon of
corn" now that it is the largest producer of ethanol in the U.S. In the
last year, ADM's share price has more than doubled. As Manitoba wheat
makes a big comeback, the answer to "Where's the E85?" could soon be
w"Everywhere."
dhansen@truwinnipeg.org
Category: Editorial and Opinions
Uniform subject(s): Oil and petrochemical industries
Length: Medium, 597 words
© 2006 Winnipeg Free Press. All rights reserved.
www.dallashansen.com |
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