In October, Gov. Phil Bredesen announced the specifics of a new alternative fuels initiative to boost production, distribution and the use of renewable energy. Earlier this year, the General Assembly approved his $4 million initiative in the Tennessee state budget.
To start the initiative, Bredesen accepted recommendations from the Alternative Fuels Working Group. The Fuels Group was a group he began by executive order in February that brought representatives in from six state agencies to create a plan for the cultivation of alternative fuels in Tennessee.
Bredesen said that there are many reasons Fuels Group and the new initiative were put into effect.
“Doing everything we can to promote greater use of biofuels is not only a smart energy strategy, it’s important to improving air quality to improve the health and welfare of Tennesseans,” he said.
Though Tennessee has supported bio-energy and renewable fuels before, Executive Director of the East Tennessee Clean Fuels Coalition Jonathan Overly said that this is a huge step for the state.
“It’s the first substantial move and substantial amount of money given by the state to really have these fuels available,” Overly said.
In his speech, Bredesen summarized the steps the initiative will take to help production of alternative fuels. The initiative will give rise to establishing and developing soybean-crushing and feedstock processing facilities for the production of biofuels as well as the establishment of 70 new alternative refueling stations for ethanol and biodiesel.
Along with those two major enhancements, the $4 million will go toward quality biofuel assurance, more education and outreach programs and the encouragement of the local government to use fleets that run on renewable energy.
Overly said the funds from the initiative will help Clean Fuels Coalition, a non-profit organization, sustain itself.
“The more we can get the state to cover our costs, the more time we can spend with UTK and other organizations,” he said.
Overly also said that the funds will help several aspects of UT engineering and the “Make Orange Green” campaign.
“First of all, it’s supporting the SAE (Society of Automotive Engineers) team,” he said. “Secondly, the university contracts to Knoxville Area Transit for all of their mass transit needs and they now run biodiesel in all of their vehicles.”
The team to which Overly referred was the group of students who were members of the Society of Automotive Engineers who started producing biodiesel in 2005 from used vegetable oil at UT’s pilot plant. The most popular feedstock for biodiesel is soybean oil, though vegetable oil, canola oil and animal fats are also used.
The initiative offers other advantages for the East Tennessee region, Overly said.
“The fueling stations are a good example,” he said. “It may not help UT or the coalition specifically but if it helps get a few more E85 or B20 stations that are nearby. That’s going to allow people in the Knoxville community and UT students an opportunity to learn how they can start using these fuels.”
Ethanol, which is sold in two forms — E10 (runs in any gasoline burning vehicle) and E85 (needs a specific Flex Fuel vehicle) — can be purchased at any biofuel station. Vehicle owners can check on the gas cap or visit UT’s biodiesel Web site to find out if their vehicle can run on ethanol.
Currently, there are no E85 stations in the East Tennessee region, but the new initiative can help solve this problem. Overly said it may take one to two years to get these stations in place.
“And it will take us some time to really integrate these fuels into the community,” Overly said.
Bredesen sees this initiative as only the beginning of renewable energy use in Tennessee.
“These are just the first of many steps we want to take to increase Tennessee’s use of renewable alternative fuels,” he said.
Overly said that there are other alternative fuels to work on and develop, and that production and distribution have a long way to go.
“In the executive order, Bredesen said he wanted to make Tennessee, I quote, ‘a leader in the Southeast in biofuels production, distribution and use,’” Overly said. “So even if we do have more stations, we still need to focus on the production and fuel suppliers carrying the fuels directly to fleets, as well as opening more stations after that.”
The initiative will make it easier than ever for Tennesseans to become involved with renewable energy sources. To find out more about UT’s biofuels collaborative, visit http://biofuels.utk.edu.
