By April Reese
University of Georgia
Bill Fox has pleasant memories of the first alternative-fuel
buses he rode as a University of Georgia student.
“Back in the 1980s, alternative fuel was used in buses for campus
transit,” said Fox, now director of the university’s motor pool.
“They were fueled by peanut oil and smelled like a big Nutter
Butter rolling down the road.”
Unfortunately, the cost of running the peanut-oil buses was too
high, Fox said. But great strides have been made over the past 20
years, and the UGA motor pool now has a number of
alternative-fuel vehicles, including bifuel passenger vans and
trucks, electric vehicles and a compressed-natural-gas passenger
van.
Bifuel vehicles use two types of fuel. Equipped with two tanks
and a switch that converts from one tank to the other, these
autos combine propane and gasoline or CNG and gasoline. They’re
classified as low-emission vehicles.
Big car on campus
The electric cars are ideal for campus use, he said, as most
campus vehicles travel just 5 miles a day.
“Electric cars are perfect for people who live in cities and
residential areas,” he said. “Their top speed is 25 mph. And they
can only operate in areas with a speed limit of 35 mph or
less.”
But don’t plan any long trips. The $3,000 battery pack, which
lasts about three years, has to be recharged at a 110-volt outlet
every 35 to 40 miles.
While neighborhood electric vehicles are classified as having
zero emissions, Fox said, you have to remember how the
electricity was produced to begin with.
Distant tailpipe
“You consider them (emission free) because they have no
tailpipe,” he said. “But the tailpipe is somewhere else. It just
wasn’t attached to the car.”
Alternative-fuel vehicles are making their way into the
automobile market.
“We have to reduce our dependence on foreign oil as a means to
national security,” said Susan Varlamoff of the Office of
Environmental Sciences of the UGA College of Agriculture and
Environmental Sciences. “As a nation, we are confronted with this
big problem of how to wean ourselves off of gasoline.”
Testing bifuel vehicles
For the past 20 years, UGA agricultural engineers have researched
the use of alternative fuels. Biodiesel is derived from crops
like peanuts, corn, soybeans and canola. The CAES is testing two
bifuel vehicles on loan from the Ford Motor Company.
“With the flip of a switch, these vehicles give you the choice of
running either on gasoline or an alternative fuel source,”
Varlamoff said.
“Our college has been developing and testing various alternative
fuels for years,” she said. “So it only seems right that we would
test vehicles that use these fuels.”
Biomass fuel, power
The U.S. Department of Energy Industries of the Future provided a
grant to the CAES Department of Biological and Agricultural
Engineering’s outreach program for an on-campus office to study
biomass fuel and power.
Other government agencies, industry and Georgia Tech will
collaborate with the UGA engineers, Varlamoff said.
“Alternative fuels such as biodiesel burn cleaner,” she said.
“More and more cities are choosing to use alternative fuels in
their buses and fleet vehicles.”
Many alternative fuels
Many alternative fuels can help reduce the pollution problems
associated with cars burning gasoline. Cars can run on compressed
natural gas (CNG), biodiesel, electricity or any combination of
these fuels.
CNG cars are considered ultralow-emission vehicles. CNG burns
much cleaner than gasoline.
The biggest reason more public vehicles don’t use alternative
fuels, Varlamoff said, is the matter of supply. Bio-diesel,
compressed natural gas and liquid propane gas aren’t among the
choices at your neighborhood filling station yet.
“Liquid propane is available at most RV and U-Haul stores and at
companies that sell LP gas,” Varlamoff said.
“Major cities like Atlanta have compressed natural gas pumping
stations,” she said, “because the EPA (U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency) requires government entities to include
alternative-fuel vehicles in their fleets.”
