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As far as the politics, many politicians are getting on board
and supporting it, trying to get more of the fuel stations
to supply it, trying to get more of the vehicles out there
to the public through GM and Ford.
Also, just plain government mandates, as far as
a certain percentage of our fuel has to be through bio fuels.
The flex fuel vehicles and E85 pumps.
There are 6 million on the road right now, vehicles that can
drive on the E85, but very few of them actually fill up
with the E85 because there aren't enough pumps.
So, they are putting gasoline in them, or they just don't know,
so they are putting gasoline in them when the tank is right over
there for the E85.
Also, one current concern is the UL has not certified
the E85 pumps yet, so a number of stations are concerned
about putting it in, even though something like
1200, 1500 stations have put in the E85 pumps at this point.
A number of them are waiting for the certification to happen.
And also what is happening is there are more and more stories
in the press about the E85 pumps being put in and about ethanol
in general and the industry.
Our concern is with the corn supply.
There is only so much corn that can be used for ethanol.
We have to feed our livestock and use products for some
of the food that we consume, although not as much.
Like if you eat sweet corn, sweet corn is not a regular corn
used for ethanol.
One of the promising things is if we get the cellulose ethanol
cost low enough, we can produce a whole lot more ethanol
per acre than what we do with corn and greatly improve
our efficiency there.
BP and DuPont are working on this project and also a product
called bio-butanol, which is similar to ethanol but has
an equal energy, more or less, to gasoline so you wouldn't
even have that fuel economy decrease.
There are several other advantages.
As they bring the price of producing that down,
because they can make it, it's just you have to bring
the price down so it's competitive with gasoline.
Then, we can use it and you can use it in any car.
So, the future will be pretty bright there if they can get
that going, as well as with cellulose ethanol.
So, that wraps up our presentation.
Dr. Wahby, I was just wondering, are we doing questions
and answers or are we going to keep moving for time?
(Dr. Wahby). Are there any questions?
(Erick Kanus). Erick Kanus.
The bio-butanol, can it be blended with gasoline?
(Paul). Most definitely.
Bio-butanol can blend with gasoline can blend with ethanol.
In fact, when they first start making it, they figure what
they will do is put the bio-butanol in with the E85
so you have no petroleum product in there at all.
It will just be partially bio-butanol and the rest ethanol
until they switch over these plants because these plants
that they are building they can switch over
to make bio-butanol with.
So, as those switch over, they will produce more and more
bio-butanol and less and less ethanol.
(Erick). Do you know approximately
what the cost would be to have a non-petroleum
gallon of fuel?
Like if the 15% bio-butanol and the 85% ethanol?
(Paul). It ranges anywhere from,
when you buy the E85 right now, it can be anywhere
from 10 cents lower per gallon, which economically
doesn't work out very well unless you take advantage
of the tax rebates, to 50 cents, I've even seen 85 cents
to a dollar cheaper per gallon, not locally.
(Erick). I meant without
petroleum whatsoever.
(Paul). Just straight ethanol?
(Erick). No, bio-butanol with
ethanol solution, what you just mentioned no petroleum.
(Paul). Oh, okay.
Ethanol right now, the spot price is about $2.38 I believe,
but bio-butanol is much more expensive.
It's probably four or five, six dollars to produce
bio-butanol right now.
So, as they are improving technology, that happened
with ethanol too.
They brought the price down, and they will do the same
with the bio-butanol.
The combination would be higher than with gasoline
at this point.
(Erick). Thank you.
(Paul). You are welcome.
(Raju). Hi, my name is Raju.
I am wondering this because ethanol and bio-butanol,
these are two different things, I am wondering is that not
going to start a race like Vitamax and VHS because
two people are doing two different things.
(Paul). Very good question,
actually what will be great is when we get to bio-butanol
because right now you have to have a flex fuel vehicle
because you don't know if the gas station is going to have
one fuel or the other.
With the bio-butanol, you can put it in any vehicle because
it's not as corrosive and you also get better gas mileage
anyway with it.
So, they won't necessarily compete, but it will just be
a transition of more and more of it will be put into
the fuel supply because it's more advantageous to use it.
(Raju). Is it going
to adjust together or what?
(Paul). That's to be decided,
but they probably will have bio-butanol where you can just
put it in your car.
Then, they may have 50/50 gasoline and bio-butanol,
and they will probably have an ethanol.
Just depending on the type of car you have, you'll fill up on
whatever makes sense pricewise at the time
and what you can use.
(Raju). Thank you very much.
(Paul). You are welcome.
(Dr. Wahby). One more question.
(Josh). Josh Norman.
What car manufacturer is leading in the flex fuel race?
What car manufacturer is manufacturing the most
flex fuel vehicles?
(Paul). Good question.
They are mostly domestic producers.
It's Ford, GM, Daimler-Chrysler, which has the Dodge line.
Those three produce probably 90% of them.
There are foreign ones also Toyota very soon
will introduce it.
Nissan just started introducing it, I believe,
in the last couple of years.
Suprisingly, Mercedes has had one for a while.
As it's catching on other ones are starting to put them in.
Really what it is is that most of them, because of the cafe
standards, which I don't have too much time to talk about,
are the ones that have big trucks and SUVs because they
get federal credit for making those as a flex fuel vehicle.
(Dr. Wahby). Join me in thanking them.
[audience applause].
Thank you very much.