Ethanol station opens in Montrose

MONTROSE — Adding to the growth of E-85 ethanol stations across the state, Montrose welcomed a new site Tuesday.

The refueling site, located at Western Convenience at 938 S. Townsend Ave., is Montrose’s first, according to the Colorado Corn Growers Association. The station sells E85, a fuel blend composed of 85 percent ethanol and 15 percent gasoline.

Ethanol is a high octane, liquid, domestic and renewable fuel, produced by the fermentation of plant sugars, as defined by the National Ethanol Vehicle Coalition.

Western Convenience also has one station in Delta and two in Grand Junction. The new Montrose station has four hoses pumping E85, said Bob Van Meter, the company’s director of operations. Colorado has about 85 E-85 fuel stations, according to the Southern Colorado Clean Cities Coalition.

“There’s a big market for (ethanol),” Van Meter said. “There’s a lot of corn growers over here (and) I know the cities are starting to switch to some flex fuel vehicles.”

Although the current price of E-85 is $2.69 per gallon at all four Western Slope stations, Van Meter said the price will fluctuate with the cost of corn, gasoline and ethanol processing. He said consumers may even see prices decline in the future.

As a grand opening special, Western Convenience offered the E-85 at $0.85 a gallon. Drivers took advantage of the offer and cars crowded the station through the afternoon.

Among those consumers was Richard Thompson, Montrose County environmental health manager. For about six months, he’s been driving a vehicle that takes E-85.

Despite less fuel economy — about two to three miles less per gallon — the cost of regular gasoline makes the option more cost effective, he said.

“Sometimes it’s more than a dollar cheaper to buy the more carbon efficient fuel (ethanol),” Thompson said.

“And as a personal opinion, I’d rather be sending my dollars to our farmers than to some country that we’re feuding with overseas.”

All of the ethanol at Western Convenience’s stations is domestically produced in Colorado, and the gasoline used to blend the fuel is purchased from Conoco, said Van Meter.

Most of the state’s ethanol is produced around the Sterling and Yuma area, said Charles McMurdy, board member for the Colorado Corn administrative committee.

About two years ago, a feasibility study determined that building an ethanol plant in the Montrose area wasn’t feasible, McMurdy said. The two main reasons for this were that not enough corn was being produced to fill the plant, and the facility needed to be located fairly close to livestock, which would be fed the bi-product. Moreover, the import and export of the ethanol posed feasibility questions.

“I don’t believe we’ll have a corn ethanol plant here,” said McMurdy, who lives in Montrose County. However, ethanol produced from cellulose (a material derived from the cell walls of certain plants) may be a future option for the area, he added.

The benefits of ethanol are that it decreases dependence on petroleum, burns cleaner and can be made from a number of feed stocks which are grown and processed in America, the Coalition noted. On the downside, research is still being conducted to determine the best feed stock.

Not all cars can take E85. However, both new and old model vehicles take the fuel. To find out if a car takes E85, visit the Web site: www.drivingethanol.org/ethanol_in_vehicles/ffv_chooser.aspx

What is ethanol?

Ethanol is a high octane, liquid, domestic and renewable fuel, produced by the fermentation of plant sugars. In the United States, ethanol is typically produced from corn and other grain products, although in the future it may be economically produced from other biomass resources such as agricultural and forestry wastes or specially grown energy crops.

Source: National Ethanol Vehicle Coalition