Alternative Fuels

Biofuels/Biodiesels

Biofuels are fuels generally made with a mixture of gasoline and ethanol, which comes from sugar or starch from crops and is considered a renewable resource – yes, the same cornstarch in your soda can be used to make biofuels!

Many car manufacturers have produced Flex-fuel vehicles, which allow the engine to run with either pure gasoline or pure ethanol, but the most common fuel mixture is 85% ethanol/15% gasoline (E85).   There are about 59 service stations in Texas offering E85, and over 2335 stations in the US that provide E85.

Biodiesel

When biodiesel is mentioned, many people have an image of the used grease traps in the back of restaurants, with someone getting the used oil from them for their car.  This is only a partially true image- while waste vegetable oil can be mixed with diesel fuel to produce biodiesel, soybeans, flaxseed oil, algae, and even animal fats (think lard), can be used for a biodiesel mixture.

This fuel can only be used in diesel engines, and requires some modifications to the engine to convert to biodiesel.  However, the EPA has found that using biodiesel from waste grease results in an 86% reduction in greenhouse gases than using regular diesel alone.

Propane

Propane is the 3rd most popular fuel in the US, behind gasoline and diesel, and reduces emissions by 20% compared to gasoline.  School districts in Dallas and Denton, Texas use propane-fueled school buses.  While there are no commercially-available vehicles that run on propane, any regular gasoline car can be converted to run on propane, which can run between $4,000 to $12,000.

Natural Gas (Compressed Natural Gas)

Natural Gas (CNG) is a cleaner alternative to gasoline, although it is still a fossil fuel.  While there are few natural gas vehicles offered on the market, regular cars can be converted to natural gas.

State agencies are one of the larger adopters of alternative-fueled vehicles, with many agency fleets required by law to have 50% of their vehicles use alternative fuels. There are many public transit agencies that run natural gas-fueled buses and vans.  The only current consumer vehicle is the Honda Civic GX NGV, which has been named by the EPA as the cleanest internal-combustion vehicle.  Natural gas is also cheaper than gasoline, with the same amount of natural gas compared to a gallon of gasoline running about $1.25.