American Coalition for Ethanol Unveils Flex Fuel Vehicle with Lower Emissions than Electric Powered

With the push to net-zero vehicles over the next 10 to 30 years, and with "net zero" being understood as electric vehicles (EVs), the American Coalition for Ethanol (ACE) unveiled a vehicle demonstration project at its recent conference that could disrupt this narrative and timeline by showing low-to-net-zero-carbon vehicles powered by ethanol already have cleaner lifecycle greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions than plug-in electrics, and could reach net-zero long before EVs on the market today.

ACE Senior Vice President Ron Lamberty drove a Hybrid Electric Ford Fusion, he recently purchased, to California earlier this month to meet with E85 wholesaler Pearson Fuels and the owners of eFLexFuel Technology. They installed a flex fuel conversion kit on Lamberty's hybrid. He drove the now Hybrid Electric Flex Fuel Ford Fusion that he nicknamed "HEFF" back to South Dakota and then took it to the ACE conference in Minneapolis to give attendees a first look at the vehicle at the beginning of a three-year demonstration project. The front-wheel-drive midsize sedan starts up on electricity and is powered by a 2.0-liter, four-cylinder engine capable of using up to E85 matched to an electric motor for a combined 188 horsepower.

The eFlexFuel conversion unit plugs into the vehicle's computer and fuel injectors and integrates a fuel-line sensor to monitor the actual ethanol content of fuel going to the cylinders and adjusts the combustion for maximum efficiency. The system includes a smartphone app that reports the percentage of ethanol in real time. ACE will document the vehicle data over the next three years to demonstrate real-world performance of the hybrid electric vehicle fueled with E85, as well as estimated GHG reduction using the CI scores of various ethanol producers.

"EPA assigns vehicles a carbon intensity (CI) score based on how many grams of CO2 per mile are emitted by operating that vehicle," Lamberty said. "While scores exist for hybrids, plug-in electrics, plug-in hybrids, flex-fuel and standard vehicles, one combination that is not represented, and hasn't even been attempted in the U.S., is the one that makes the most sense to me: a hybrid electric flex fuel vehicle."

Full electric and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEV) are only as clean as the electricity used to charge them, or the gasoline used to power them. And, currently there are hard environmental realities facing electric vehicles, including how the electricity they use is generated in most of the country.

According to Lamberty, from a total greenhouse gas reduction standpoint, it makes sense for a hybrid to use the cleanest liquid fuel available when charging and not running on electricity, and that's E85. Lamberty calculated a hybrid electric vehicle running on low-CI E85 could obtain a total GHG score as low as 20 to 25 grams of CO2 per mile, which is lower than current EPA total GHG emissions calculations for PHEVs or full EVs. Yet, no major automakers offer a flex-fuel hybrid vehicle.

"If regulators at EPA and the California Air Resources Board (CARB) would properly assess lifecycle GHG by accounting for the continued advancements in ethanol production facilities, improvements in on-farm practices in growing biofuel crops, and factoring in carbon capture and sequestration, the CI score of ethanol can be near zero or below zero," Lamberty said. "To top it off, ethanol-powered vehicles can be far more affordable to the average driver than the premium-priced vehicles dominating the EV marketplace today, so more people could start reducing carbon right now."

EDITOR’S TAKE:

Very interesting experiment and vision. For many people, it is difficult to envision how all electric vehicles can work effectively for longer distance commutes or trips. The HEFF vehicle just might answer a lot of questions about how to overcome those concerns and be even more friendly to the environment in the long run. It’s like one of those, “why didn’t I think of that” moments. We will certainly want to continue following the results of this experiment. This could also be a big boost to corn and ethanol producers as well. It’s not nearly as difficult to imagine a farmer with a hybrid truck using electric and ethanol power versus all electric. Besides, when you throw in AgPack you really have a winning combination!