Bioethanol

If you’ve been considering an alternative-fuel vehicle for your next car but were wondering where on earth to fill up, look no further than the U.S. Department of Energy. That’s right — the DoE has put together a handy web site where you can search for refueling stations for just about any kind of fuel except regular, ol’ gasoline:

• Biodiesel (B20 and above)
• Compressed Natural Gas
• Electric
• Ethanol (E85)
• Hydrogen
• Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG)
• Liquefied Petroleum Gas (Propane)

It should surprise no one that California leads the way in most types of alternative fuel stations. E85 is huge in the Midwest, which is another no-brainer, but biodiesel is big in Georgia and the Carolinas, which I did not know. Texas has hundreds of propane filling stations, as anyone who watches “King of the Hill” would probably guess.

There is a ton of information on the Alternative Fuels and Advanced Vehicles Data Center, and it will be a valuable resource as more alternative-fueled cars come to market in the next four years or so. Bookmark it now, folks, and tell all your friends who love green cars.

This month Interstate 65, which runs from Gary, Indiana, to Mobile, Alabama, become America’s first biofuels corridor, with help from the U.S. Energy Department, General Motors, and the Ethanol Promotion and Information Council. What does a biofuels corridor mean for drivers? It means that there are dozens of stations along I-65 offering E85 (85% ethanol, 15% gasoline) or B20 (20% biodiesel, 80% regular diesel), each spaced no more than a quarter tank apart.

The idea is less romantic than Route 66, but far more practical and forward-thinking. The route covers four states: Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Alabama. Seems like the perfect place to try out your new $2.4-million Koenigsegg CCXR supercar, which runs on E85. It could do this route from stem to stern in a cool three and a half hours.

Photo by peggydavis66.

DriveFlexFuel.com sells conversion kits for cars, trucks, RVs, motorcycles, and boats so that they can run on E85, gasoline, or a combination of the two. The kits are available for any fuel-injected engine (which covers a lot of ground) for a few hundred bucks.

As a hypothetical demonstration, I’ll use my little red GMC pickup truck. The picture of this particular conversion kit looks intimidating: a box with a lengths of “plug and play” connectors coiled around it. It’s available for less than $400, though, which seems like a bargain. (They also have kits for the likes of your 12-cylinder Ferraris and Aston Martins for about $700.)

Like most other alternative-fuel web sites, there’s a carbon footprint calculator, which tells me that I’m emitting nearly 5,000 pounds of CO2 annually (the EPA estimator says I’m putting out more like 6,000 pounds. Either way, it’s not great). By using an E85 converter from Drive Flex Fuel, though, I could reduce my annual CO2 emissions by more than a ton. Intriguing.

Where to gas up, though? Using the zip code where my little red truck lives in Portland, Oregon, Drive Flex Fuel came up with eight locations within 50 miles. Two of these, though, were for government vehicles only, and a few seemed to be for commercial vehicles, not passenger vehicles.

This seems like a project for experienced home mechanics only — not a DIY weekend deal, unless you’re converting a non-essential car just for kicks. But if you’ve got the greasemonkey chops and want to green your ride, this seems like a relatively inexpensive and easy way to do it.

The Alternative Energy and Transportation Expo will roll into Santa Monica for the third straight year September 26-27, at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium. For the first time ever, the show will also set up camp in Texas, at the Austin Energy Alt Car Expo inside the Palmer Events Center October 17-18. Both events are free, free, free.

If you’re new to alternative-energy-powered vehicles, these events would be a good place to start. More than 150 exhibits will detail different fuels, such as hydrogen, hybrids, ethanol, electricity — both AC and DC — and even natural gas and propane. Experts will be on hand to answer any questions you may have, whether you’re an SUV driver thinking about driving greener or an engineer who converted his Porsche 914 to an AC motor.

Perhaps the most useful part of the expo is the Ride and Drive lot, where visitors can experience alternative fuels first-hand and evaluate their pluses and minuses from the driver’s (or passenger’s) seat. Seminars and panel discussions will be held during both weekends, featuring authors who’ve analyzed the future of the auto industry and movers and shakers from within the industry itself.

Cadillac’s first-ever hybrid, the 2009 Escalade Hybrid, will cost a whopping $71,685, including destination charges. The green-ish Escalade turns in 20 mpg city and 21 mpg highway, same as the Chevy Tahoe and GMC Yukon hybrids, but it costs $20,000 more than either of its stablemates.

The Escalade will hit dealerships in September and will likely appeal to the same people who were buying the top-end luxury SUV in the first place, but now it comes with eco-cachet. That little green “H” logo looks good no matter which aftermarket rims and grilles you choose.

In contrast, the standard-issue 2009 Escalade without the two-mode hybrid system gets 12 mpg in the city and 19 on the highway with gasonline or 10 mpg/14 mpg if you get the E85 Flex Fuel version. The hybrid has puts out 9.2 tons of carbon annually, according to the EPA, while E85 emits 10.1 tons and gasoline emits 12. 2 tons.

You, Citizen Driver, are not the only one who cringes every time you fill the gas tank or feels  a pang of guilt when your car belches those nasty emissions out the tailpipe. The American Le Mans Series of racing professionals knows your pain. That’s why it’s instituting the Green Challenge at its signature event, the Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta, scheduled for October 4.

Three factors will be considered in naming a winner of this race-within-a-race:

• Performance (of course — this is a race)
• Fuel Efficiency
• Environmental Impact

Cars will be ranked by the amount of energy they use, the greenhouse gases they emit, and the amount of gasoline they displace over the course of the race. Which boils down to going as far as they can, as fast as they can, with the least environmental impact.

ALMS has been taking steps all season to lessen the environmental impact of racing. GM, Audi, and others have introduced race cars running on alternative fuels like E85 and clean diesel. You can bet those teams will be vying for the Green Challenge title. Race fans and consumers are winners in this event, too, as technological innovations on the track often trickle down to cars on the showroom floor.

Even NASCAR is dipping a toe in the clean-and-green waters. Michigan International Speedway, which hosts two NASCAR events during the season, stepped up its recycling efforts this year. During the Lifelock 400 weekend in June alone, MIS collected 15.3 tons of aluminum, plastic, and cardboard. They’re even recycling construction materials from some recent upgrades to the facilities, and they’ve instituted an office recycling program.

Eco-friendlier fuels, recycling … What is auto racing coming to? Oh, right. Its senses.