Without mass adoption of natural gas and biomass as feedstock for transportation fuels to replace oil, the U.S. and its economy will remain dependent on foreign oil, according to the Fuel Freedom Foundation (FFF).
“In order to become energy independent, we need to reduce our oil consumption by half. We can do that by replacing transportation fuels made from oil with those using natural gas as a feedstock, like methanol and ethanol,” Aronoff asserts. “The abundance of low cost feedstocks for competitive fuels will drive down the price of fuel, and will deflate the power of the oil price setters, allowing the U.S. to be truly energy independent.”
Aronoff, a co-founder of Quest Software that sold to Dell for $2.4 billion, traces his commitment to breaking oil addiction issues to his Israeli roots. As a youngster he lost his father in the 1967 Six Day War. Then, on Sept. 11, 2001, Aronoff’s step-brother and his new wife were both killed in the World Trade Center attack.
In the wake of 9/11, Aronoff began to turn his attention toward answering the question of how to free the U.S. economy from its dependence on imported oil, which he believes would assist in ensuring geopolitical security.
The FFF is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that aims “to remove barriers to competition so that natural gas, methanol, ethanol and electricity can compete on equal footing with gasoline at the pump and at the dealership. Achieving fuel freedom will lower fuel prices, create jobs, spur economic growth, reduce pollution, and improve national and global security,” says Aronoff, citing the FFF’s views on various fuels.
Q: What replacement fuels do you propose?
A: In addition to capitalizing on domestic petroleum, ethanol, methanol and natural gas can cure our foreign oil addiction. All of these can be produced at an affordable price from abundant and widely available feedstocks such as municipal waste, natural gas and corn. In addition, hybrids and electric cars are great alternatives to respectively minimize fuel consumption and avoid the fuel problem altogether.
Q: What is required to make vehicles flex-fuel?
A: Most cars that have been produced over the last five years are already capable of being ethanol/gasoline flex-fuel. However, to enable the cars to run on multiple fuels, slight modifications to fuel line seals and other parts and computer reprogramming in the vehicle are required.
Ethanol/gasoline flex-fuel capable cars could be converted to support up to 60 percent blends of methanol by merely replacing fuel system seals and o-rings. Support for higher methanol blends can be achieved by modifying an automobile’s spark tables. Late model year non-flexible fuel cars could be converted to flex-fuel by reprogramming their on-board computer to recognize alcohol fuels. All together there are an estimated 50 million cars and trucks that could be converted to run on ethanol/methanol/gasoline blends. In addition, it is not costly to convert vehicles. Most of the associated costs are for the labor that is required to replace the seals with alcohol compatible products.
Q: Can electric vehicles alone solve our oil problem?
A: Electric vehicles are a good option, but a total transition will take a very long time due to high prices. We want to see results more quickly. A variety of options would offer more choices for consumers at lower price.
Q: Why is efficiency not enough?
A: While increasing the required number of miles per gallon can reduce the petroleum consumed per mile of driving, this approach does not incentivize the necessary shift away from the near-exclusive use of petroleum-based fuels. Therefore, even if we use less gasoline per vehicle, the price of oil will still continue to rise, along with all the economic, geopolitical and environmental impacts.
Additionally, any solution that is solely dependent on replacement of the fleet is too slow. It will take 25-30 years for the impact of higher efficiency cars to be large enough to make a difference.
Q: What is MPD and why is it more important than MPG?
A: Taking the miles per gallon (MPG) and dividing it by the price of fuel calculates miles per dollar (MPD). MPG has been the only way for consumers to understand how much gasoline is consumed but it fails to capture the cost element. MPD is a straightforward approach to account for the actual dollars you spend on fuel. It can become the comparison between the value recovered from using replacement fuels.
Q: Can’t we achieve “fuel freedom” by building infrastructure and mass transit services to bring people together?
A: Reducing vehicle miles travelled is a good thing, but it is unrealistic to expect massive changes in the near term. We’re advocating for a more expedient solution that accommodates Americans’ variety of lifestyle choices.
Q: Why not specifically advocate for more advanced biofuels such as cellulosic ethanol or algae?
A: The open market envisioned by Fuel Freedom would pave the way for any fuel to compete, and the more, the merrier. However, for the near term, we are focusing specific attention on replacement fuels that can be readily produced on a large scale, at an affordable price, and using existing technology. Once the market opens up, fuels that are struggling to get the necessary funding to scale up and enjoy lower costs will have a fair chance to compete in the market due to economy of scale. In particular, fuels made from renewable sources will, in the long run, enjoy cheaper feedstock costs, which will enable them to stack favorably against fossil fuels.
Q: How do we know methanol can safely and reliably fuel our cars?
A: Methanol is a liquid fuel created mostly from natural gas. It is a highly oxygenated, high-octane fuel. Methanol has fueled vehicles over the past 30 years. In the 1980s and 1990s, methanol-powered cars accumulated 35 million miles in the U.S. and around the world, including 15,000 methanol vehicles in California. Drivers in China currently use methanol in their cars. Methanol has even fueled racecars from Indy and CART to Monster Trucks and Pikes Peak International Hill Climb.
Q: Is methanol really safe?
A: The easy answer is that methanol is lethal if ingested, but the fact that we can’t drink gasoline doesn’t stop us from using it to drive our cars. That being said, safety can be considered in a number of ways. Methanol is a chemical that has benefits and risks compared to gasoline. Methanol burns cooler, which is one reason why racecars use it. It is also water soluble, so a spill is quickly and easily cleaned with water alone, rather than the noxious chemicals often used in attempts to clean up oil spills.
Q: How do we know ethanol and methanol could work?
A: China and Brazil – the world’s third- and fourth-largest energy consumers respectively – have shown the feasibility of creating a mass market for replacement fuels. China has been using methanol as a transportation fuel since the 1980s and is in the process of creating a methanol-based transportation system. Brazil has mandated the use of blended ethanol and gasoline since 1976 and today the lowest blend of gasoline is E20 (20 percent ethanol).
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