By Dan Shaw, Evansville Courier & Press
For sale in Vanderburgh County: Fuel that is 85 percent ethanol.
On Thursday, the Countrymark Cooperative at the corner of St. Joseph Avenue and Mill Road began selling E85. It is the first business to offer the fuel in Vanderburgh County, said Rick Madden, the petroleum division manager of Superior Ag, which owns the cooperative.
"This a commitment from Superior Ag to support our local corn growers and reduce dependence on foreign oil," he said.
In the car fuel usually sold in Indiana, about 10 percent of the composition is ethanol - a gasoline substitute often made from fermenting the sugar found in corn. The difference with E85 is that the concentration has been raised to 85 percent.
The fuel is more corrosive than gasoline and vehicles must be modified to burn it without trouble. Vanderburgh County contains about 1,700 of those so-called flex-fuel vehicles, Madden said. With the addition of the new pump, drivers will be able to buy E85 at stations in a stretch between Evansville and Gary.
Madden acknowledged that the demand for the fuel has fallen in recent times. That has resulted in the cancellation or the postponement of the construction of several ethanol plants.
In Mount Vernon, Aventine Renewable Energy Holdings Inc. has delayed the completion date of an ethanol plant by months. The company said the recent drop in gasoline prices has undermined the position ethanol once enjoyed as a cheap alternative fuel.
But Randy Kron, a farmer who hopes to sell corn to local ethanol plants, said the public is naive if it thinks the low gas prices are here to stay.
"E-85 is a longer term answer for renewable fuels to replace foreign fuel," he said.
Kron said part of the trouble with E85 is that the fuel is still difficult to find. That's why it's important for businesses such as Countrymark to invest in pumps and other needed equipment.
Madden said about half of the money for the E85 pump came from outside sources. The Indiana Department of Agriculture and the Indiana Corn Marketing Council both contributed.
Madden said the state now contains about 120 E85 pumps. The fuel sold there comes from the 13 ethanol plants in the state, as well as those elsewhere.