E-85 fueling station reduces footprint

UCF's has taken another step toward its goal of becoming more environmentally-friendly.

UCF will join the University of Florida as the only universities in the state to have access to an E-85 fueling station, one of only 52 throughout Florida.

For more photos, view the gallery here

The new fueling station became available for the campus fleet vehicles last month and should decrease UCF's environmental footprint by fueling the vehicles with a better gas alternative: ethanol. The 12,000-gallon fueling station supplies an alternative fuel made from 85 percent ethanol and 15 percent gasoline.

E-85 is an ethanol-based fuel alternative made from corn. It's cheaper than gasoline, at around 49 cents less per gallon; it's also biodegradable. The benefits of using E-85 outweigh gasoline by about 10 to 15 percent in terms of greenhouse gas production, according to the U.S. Department of Energy's Alternative Fuel Price Report.

However, vehicles must be specially made in order to run on any alternative fuel, which adds extra costs to the switch from gas-fueled vehicles to E-85 as a main fuel source.

UCF's 45 flex-fuel fleet vehicles are specially designed to be able to run on E-85, as well as any other ratio of ethanol to gasoline.

David Norvell, UCF's director of sustainability and energy management, said that the construction of the E-85 station will represent a part of UCF's transition toward becoming greener, as outlined in the university's Climate Action Plan. The five-step plan aims to become climate-neutral by having no net loss of energy, by the year 2050.

This date "will be flexible depending on the state budget," Norvell said.

Climate neutrality would also make UCF self-sufficient, energy-wise.

Norvell also said that energy conservation in Florida might be a more expensive investment because the state lacks mountains for windmills, which is one of the cheapest ways to recycle energy.

Overall, the expenses of investing in alternative fuel are not as important as saving energy to supporters of UCF's green initiatives. Senior business major Katie Ziegler says she supports the efforts UCF is taking toward becoming climate neutral, while acknowledging that the price of investing in alternative fuels is costly.

"E-85 might be the future of alternative fuel," Ziegler said.

Krishna Singh, director of UCF Parking and Transportation Services, says the fleet vehicle the department uses will run on E-85, and that the carts they use are all electric. In the future, he says the department plans on continuing to use fleet vehicles built to run on alternative fuel or electricity, instead of just gasoline.

Other efforts that UCF's energy department plans on making toward climate neutrality will include building more solar panels around campus, as well as the construction of a new power plant on campus, which will save millions of dollars per year on energy costs for UCF.

The plant is set to begin powering a portion of the campus in October, according to Norvell.

Whether the E-85 station will be open to the public in the future is still being discussed, but is a possibility. This would allow others to fuel their vehicles with E-85 as long as the vehicle is built to run on the fuel.