Opening of Area’s First Methanol Pump Fuels Drive for Cleaner Air

Used to be, when the needle hovered near “E” on the city of Pasadena’s 11 methanol-powered, smog-fighting cars, drivers had to scramble to find a place to fuel up.

Sure, regular unleaded would work in a pinch in the “fuel-flexible” engines designed to cut down on pollution-forming emissions, but for genuine M85 methanol, the only local source was eight miles away in Glendale.

No more. Symbolic of increasing use of methanol vehicles in the heart of Southern California’s smog country, Mobil Oil on April 18 opened the San Gabriel Valley’s first retail methanol pump. The station, on Lake Avenue by the Foothill Freeway in Pasadena, joins 22 other such outlets that five oil companies have opened in the last two years across California.

Although the jury is still out on whether California and the nation will embrace methanol as a mainstream alternative fuel, state and local energy and transportation experts say there likely will be more pumps installed in the coming years as clean air regulations become stricter and the demand to solve smog problems intensifies with population growth.

“The issue is really clean air,” said Bruce A. Williams, Pasadena’s city fleet administrator who has promoted the use of methanol.

Citing technological advances in equipment used in methanol-powered vehicles, he said he hopes to gradually add more of them to the city’s fleet--already the state’s second largest methanol group operated by a municipality. The city of Los Angeles has the largest.

Boosters such as Williams and regional air-quality official Paul Wuebben say the potential value of methanol-powered vehicles is nothing short of amazing.

If the region’s vehicles ran on a blend of methanol and unleaded gas, Wuebben said, pollution from automobiles and trucks--Southern California’s main smog producers--could be cut by 30% to 50%.

The improvement, however, would have a price.

On Thursday, the Pasadena station’s posted price of methanol was 83.9 cents a gallon, while regular unleaded was $1.03.9. However, it takes more methanol--1.7 gallons--for a vehicle to travel the same distance it could go on one gallon of unleaded.

Widespread use of methanol cars by consumers would probably mean fuel costs 10% higher than the current rates paid for unleaded, said Wuebben, who manages the clean fuels program of the South Coast Air Quality Management District in El Monte. The price of methanol-fueled automobiles, he said, would be about $300 more than for standard cars.

But most people don’t realize that the slightly higher costs would be more than offset by environmental, health and overall economic benefits to the region, Wuebben said. “The public is woefully undereducated on this issue.”

With about 1,000 vehicles using methanol in the California Energy Commission’s experimental, subsidized program for governmental agencies and businesses, the San Gabriel Valley claims more than one-tenth of the fleet.

The AQMD’s El Monte headquarters, which has its own private methanol pump, has the most in the region, with 88.

In addition, Pomona workers of GTE of California are using seven methanol-powered cars, according to the firm’s state fleet manager, Darryl Meekhof. The Pasadena pump will help GTE drivers from Pomona, he said, as well as those passing through the San Gabriel Valley from GTE offices in Woodland Hills, where three methanol cars are based.

In addition, the Southern California Rapid Transit District has reported success with 30 methanol-powered buses that offer a dramatic contrast to the smoky diesels in the district’s fleet.

But a “chicken-and-egg” syndrome has plagued methanol. Oil company officials have been hesitant to invest huge amounts of money required for production and distribution of methanol because the vehicles aren’t commercially available. Auto manufacturers, though they predict increasing availability of fuel-flexible vehicles in the immediate future, have said they didn’t want to launch full-scale production because of the scarcity of stations with methanol.

So, despite growing local interest, some officials and businesses remain unconvinced.

“The drawback is the fuel availability,” said Larry Feemster, director of governmental relations for Baldwin Park-based In-N-Out Burgers, which is considering the purchase of a methanol car. But the company headquarters, he said, is too far from commercial pumps. “If there were more methanol locations available, it would help, because we’re really committed to helping clean the air up.”

Azusa city officials said one factor in their recent decision not to buy two fuel-flexible cars for municipal staffers stemmed from the fact that the central San Gabriel Valley has no retail methanol pumps.

“We’re considering propane now,” director of public works Louie Pedroza said.

Businesses and cities may not have much choice. The AQMD is considering a rule requiring large fleets to convert to cleaner fuels.

Wuebben said the installation of the new pump in Pasadena is one step toward wider acceptance of methanol. Mobil is planning to install nine other pumps throughout the state, and four other oil companies--Shell, Arco, Chevron and Exxon--have committed to adding a total of 35 more.

At the ribbon-cutting for the Lake Avenue station, oil company executives, air quality officials and energy commission representatives singled out methanol as one of the better candidates in the pantheon of alternative fuels.

“Those of us who are trying to deal with the air here, we are deeply appreciative,” AQMD board member Larry L. Berg said in expressing thanks to the energy commission officials and Mobil executives.

Gesturing toward the San Gabriel Mountains, partly obscured by smog, Berg said he hoped the use of fuels such as methanol will make it possible to “clean up the air in this basin . . . so we can see those beautiful mountains behind us.”

BACKGROUND Methanol is a colorless, odorless fuel that can be made from natural gas, coal or decaying organisms such as vegetable matter. Its advocates say use of the fuel could cut air pollution by 30% to 50%. It is high octane with about half of the energy of gasoline. A vehicle needs about 1.7 gallons to go the same distance that one gallon of gas will take it. “Fuel-flexible” vehicles can use either methanol or unleaded but ideally use a mixture, known as M85, that is 85% methanol and 15% gasoline. The California Energy Commission is working with auto makers to provide methanol-powered vehicles to the public by 1993.