Michigan stakes claim in clean fuel race

Christina Rogers / The Detroit News

The race to change the way Americans fuel their vehicles is propelling Michigan to the forefront in pioneering alternatives.

Some alternative fuel technologies are further along than others -- ethanol, for instance, is already available as a gasoline-blend at many pumps -- but breakthroughs are afoot in the Great Lakes State, especially with the federal government pouring billions of dollars into Michigan for advancing biofuel and electric battery technology.

Research under way in biofuels, electric power and hydrogen fuel cells could create new opportunities for the state's retracting economy and push Michigan into the vanguard for revolutionizing -- yet again -- how the world travels on wheels.

"Right now, the attempt to find the best battery pack for vehicles is the equivalent in the automotive industry of the moon shot in the '60s or '70s," said Bruce Belzowski, assistant research scientist at the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute.

Record-high gas prices last year and concerns over climate change have jolted development of these alternatives, as have ongoing efforts to lessen the nation's dependence on foreign oil.

Today, U.S. vehicles account for about one-fourth of the nation's carbon pollutants and guzzle about 71 percent of the U.S. petroleum supply, according to the U.S. Department of Energy. By 2050, the federal government has set a goal of cutting carbon emissions by 80 percent.

Reducing gasoline use will be crucial to this endeavor, industry experts say. But it's unlikely that one fuel alternative will suffice. And hurdles remain. Electric batteries are expensive to manufacture, and the nation lacks a cohesive infrastructure to support the rapid growth of biofuels and hydrogen fuel in the marketplace.

Researchers and auto industry experts envision the phasing in of multiple fuel technologies as they mature, all of which will gradually chip away at petroleum demand.

"Biofuels are here today and hopefully better ones are coming," said Mark Duvall, a director at the Electric Power Research Institute, an industry research group with offices in Palo Alto, Calif. "Plug-in hybrids and electric vehicles are coming tomorrow. And hydrogen fuel is sort of out there in the future."

Talent pool helps state

Michigan isn't the only state or country in the race, but the concentration of engineering expertise gives the state an edge. Electric battery power has quickly moved into the spotlight with automakers and the federal government seeing it as a better near-term solution to reducing gasoline use.

Next year, the first plug-in extended range vehicles, including General Motor Co.'s Chevy Volt, will begin appearing in showrooms.

Ford Motor Co. plans to bring a battery electric vehicle to market by 2011 and a plug-in by 2012. Unlike gasoline-hybrids, plug-in hybrid electric vehicles can recharge by drawing power directly from an outlet and they are capable of going farther without using gasoline.

To speed their development, the Obama administration in June awarded Michigan and Detroit's Big Three more than $1.3 billion of $2.4 billion in federal grants to support the next generation of battery and electric vehicles. The administration wants to see 1 million plug-in electric vehicles on the road by 2015. The funding is expected to create about 6,800 jobs immediately and as many as 40,000 by 2020 in Michigan, state economic development leaders say.

The Department of Energy also added another $39 million in the 2010 budget to boost research and development of hybrid and electric plug-in vehicles. Nurturing this emerging sector will help give Michigan a better foothold for attracting engineers, scientists and other knowledge-based workers needed to propel the industry forward, said Mary Beth Stanek, director of environment, energy and safety policy at GM.

"With electric vehicles, this is a real game changer," she said.

Feds fund ethanol

For Michigan, whose second largest industry is agriculture, biofuels hold promise, although their growth in the marketplace has slacked in recent years because of limited infrastructure and too few fueling stations offering bio-based blends. Ethanol gasoline blends also are 30 percent less fuel-efficient than regular gasoline, even though cost per gallon is similar.

"We have right now way more vehicles that can use ethanol than we have ethanol," Duvall said.

Even so, automakers, energy companies and the federal government continue funding research in this area. Detroit's Big Three have pledged to make 50 percent of their vehicle lineups flex-fuel capable by 2012. And Congress has set a deadline to increase renewable fuel production to 36 billion gallons by 2022 -- about 15 billion gallons of which will come from corn-based ethanol. Researchers at Michigan State University are leading federally funded research into the next generation of ethanol production, known as cellulosic ethanol, which uses fibrous, non-edible materials such as wood chips and switch grass rather than corn.

"If we could build off some of the research it could be really good for Michigan economically," said Bruce Dale, a chemical engineering professor at Michigan State and a leading researcher on cellulosic biofuel.

Michigan, in particular, could be well-suited for producing this newer type of ethanol with a climate favorable for growing switch grass and an established forestry industry, he said.

Already, one company, Mascoma Corp. in Lebanon, N.H., has committed to building its first commercial-scale cellulosic ethanol plant in Kinross, in the Upper Peninsula. The plant, which will turn wood chips into the clear, odorless alcohol-based fuel, will begin production in 2012.

Hydrogen far off

Research on hydrogen fuel continues to churn forward but many in the auto industry and the federal government see it as a longer term proposition.

While hydrogen is plentiful and clean-burning, it's expensive and it could be decades before an infrastructure is in place to distribute the highly pressurized fuel. No hydrogen-fueled vehicles have been commercially sold in the United States.

"A lot of people see hydrogen as the ultimate endgame," said Jennifer Moore, a spokeswoman for Ford, which is testing hydrogen fuel vehicles on the road but doesn't have immediate plans to bring them to market. "But we've decided to concentrate our research on technology that could come to fruition in the near term."

And so has the Obama administration, which proposed to cut its budget for research funding by 60 percent next year for hydrogen and fuel cell technology. A Congressional subcommittee has since reinstated that funding and slightly increased it for 2010.

Still, some researchers view the development of low-cost, high-efficiency battery packs as an intermediate step to bring hydrogen-power vehicles closer to the market. Used in conjunction with hydrogen fuel cells, batteries can store excess electricity generated by the system, making the vehicle more efficient.

"It's not completely out of the picture," said U-M's Belzowski, of hydrogen fuel cell technology. "The process needs a battery pack to start with. By creating a better battery pack, we're also heading in that direction."

cvrogers@detnews.com (313) 222-2300