Biofuels Have Head Start on Alternatives
Low-carbon liquid fuel will fit right into today's infrastructure
By John McElroy Ward's AutoWorld, Mar 1, 2010 12:00 PM

If cars powered by electricity, hydrogen or natural gas are ever going to catch on in the U.S., a lot of infrastructure is going to have to get built. But you have to wonder how or if that will ever happen.

Have you looked around the country lately? Most states, municipalities and even the federal government are flat broke. And though they're all talking about spending money on rebuilding infrastructure, any money that becomes available is going to go straight into rebuilding the roads and bridges that are crumbling in front of our eyes.

Spending taxpayer money to benefit a small group of wealthy people who can afford to buy expensive alternative automobiles is going to be a long way down the priority list. That means private industry would have to step in to foot the bill. But will it?

I'm not talking about small-scale demonstration projects undertaken in well-off communities to show how environmentally responsible they are. I'm talking about the large-scale infrastructure required to make these alternative vehicles viable on a national basis.

Electric vehicles are going to require public charging stations conveniently located in homes and businesses throughout metropolitan areas. The nation's electric grid, itself, is going to have to be rebuilt and modernized to accommodate large numbers of EVs.

Vehicles that run on natural gas are going to need thousands of stations nationwide that are convenient to motorists.

A brand new hydrogen infrastructure is going to have to get built before we can even think about switching over to cars powered by fuel cells.

Again, who is going to pay for all this?

Private money will invest in that infrastructure as long as it sees the kind of market demand that guarantees a return on investment. But that's going to be very, very long-term investment. After all, it's taken hybrids more than a decade to reach a small sliver of the American market.

That's why, as I ponder the infrastructure needed to make alternative vehicles viable, I'm beginning to believe biofuels have a massive head start on everything else.

For example, it looks like ethanol blends up to E40 (40% ethanol, 60% gasoline) can be used in the existing gasoline delivery infrastructure. And biofuel derived from algae can be produced in today's refineries.

This is a key reason why the U.S. military is considering switching over to biofuels in about five years: it's here, it works and it's domestically produced.

The push to get the auto industry to build cars that run on alternative fuels is going to hinge on how easy it is for consumers to use them. That means there better be an infrastructure to support them.

And that's why I'm betting that a low-carbon liquid fuel that will fit right into today's infrastructure will emerge as the winner.

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John McElroy is editorial director of Blue Sky Productions and producer of “Autoline” for WTVS-Channel 56, Detroit, and “Autoline Daily,” the online video newscast.