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| Biofuel Businesses Remain Small-but-Profitable Posted: 27 Dec 2010 02:57 PM PST
In a piece last week in GigaOM, Boonsri Dickinson talked about how the biofuel businesses remains very small nationwide. There’s just a single biofuel station in San Francisco, DogPatch Biofuels. Across the whole of the U.S., there are just over 1,500 biodiesel stations, and 2,500 stations that serve E85 ethanol. Compare that to the over 130,000 gas-only stations in the U.S., and there is obviously a huge discrepancy there. While biofuel businesses do manage to turn a profit despite small scale (the San Francisco station sells just about 600 gallons of biodiesel a day) they often have to turn to selling other stuff, like chicken seed, to make more money. A big reason biofuel stations don’t draw big business is that biofuels are missing two components; infrastructure, and trust. There is no "name-brand" biofuel business in the U.S., no trusted source of high-quality fuels. Now I'm not saying the start-up entrepreneur working out of a warehouse making biodiesel doesn't know what he is doing. But when it comes to fueling up an investment that can cost tens of thousands of dollars, people are hesitant to put just any ol' fuel into their car. Beyond that, biofuel companies don't have the infrastructure of deep pockets of Big Oil, but they've got the advantage of being able to farm their fuel from local sources as opposed to shipping it halfway across the country (or the world). Even so though, the people interested in fueling up with ethanol or biodiesel are still few and far between, and many of these people have learned how to use their vehicles minimally, if at all. Biofuels have a high hill to climb, and they may forever remain a niche market. At least to me though, it remains a better alternative to petroleum. Source: GigaOM | Image: DogPatch Fuels Chris DeMorro is a writer and gearhead who loves all things automotive, from hybrids to Hemis. You can follow his slow descent into madness at Sublime Burnout.
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| Ford Bringing Start-Stop Technology to Non-Hybrid Cars Posted: 27 Dec 2010 12:45 PM PST
What is start-stop technology? Simply put, when the vehicle comes to a stop, a system shuts down the engine until it is needed to go again. Ford calls their system Auto Start-Stop, and while the system is still under development, Ford claims it can save up to 10% more fuel, and if you're doing a lot of city driving than I can see this being true. Ford hasn't decided yet whether to make Auto Start-Stop a standard feature (figured into the base price) or an extra-cost option. Earlier this year Ford debuted a concept called the "Start" in China that had an engine start-stop system on it, and Mazda made it clear they too would add Start-Stop systems to their cars, though the two formerly-close companies did not work together on this project. The Ford system will debut on the direct-injected four-cylinder engines, as direct injection squirts fuel right into the cylinder, meaning the engine can restart much quicker than traditional fuel injection (which squirts fuel into an intake manifold, where it is sucked into the right cylinder). Likely first-candidates include the Fiesta, new Focus, and the Transit Connect (which I think is the perfect candidate for this system…business owners love saving money.) Ford has already added rolled out the technology in its European Ka and Mondeo, and by 2012 it could be featured on a number of Ford's smaller automobiles. The only qualm I have about this is that if you're a frequent highway-driver, this system would go largely unused. But who wouldn't want to save upwards of 10% more fuel from a simple device? Would you rather have Ford's stop-start be a standard feature, or something you had to pay a bit extra for? Source: AutoWeek Chris DeMorro is a writer and gearhead who loves all things automotive, from hybrids to Hemis. You can follow his slow descent into madness at Sublime Burnout.
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