News Release from Illinois EPA

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE February 23, 2012

Illinois EPA Designates 15 Chicago Area “Green Fleets”

Oak Park—The Illinois EPA, in coordination with the Chicago Area Clean Cities coalition, designated 15 new Chicago area Green Fleets at an event held today in Oak Park.  The Illinois Green Fleets program provides for “Green Environment, Green Energy, & Green Economics for a Green Illinois,” through the use of clean alternate fuels, such as natural gas, biodiesel, ethanol, propane and electricity in their fleet vehicles, as well as retrofiting existing diesel trucks with clean technology options to reduce diesel particulates. Information regarding the program can be found at http://www.illinoisgreenfleets.org/.  “These are family-owned and larger businesses, as well as public bodies, that have seen the value in supporting clean air, energy independence, jobs and providing insurance against the concern about high prices for gasoline and diesel,” said Interim Illinois EPA Director John Kim. “These new Green Fleets join an elite fraternity of over 100 designated fleets throughout the state. We see more and more family-owned small businesses that are taking the initiative to purchase and convert their vehicles and equipment to run on a clean American fuel,” said Darwin Burkhart, program manager for the Illinois EPA and Chairman of Chicago Area Clean Cities. The 15 new Illinois Green Fleets are: Abt Electronics, a family-owned electronics and appliance store based in Glenview, uses biodiesel in its diesel truck fleet and has 30 vans that use E85 ethanol fuel and two vans that run on natural gas. In addition, the Abt family installed diesel oxidation catalysts on eight diesel delivery trucks to further reduce particulate emissions. Groot Industries, a family operated waste hauler based in Elk Grove Village, has 33 refuse trucks that run on natural gas and has installed two natural gas refueling stations to share with other fleets. Other waste companies being recognized are Waste Management in Wheeling and Veolia ES Solid Waste in Northbrook with 33 and 20 natural gas refuse trucks, respectively. Competitive Lawn Service, a small commercial lawn business in Downers Grove, is the first lawn and landscaping business in the country to convert many of its pickup trucks and mower equipment to propane.  Doreen’s Pizzeria, a family-owned business in Calumet City, has seven natural gas-powered delivery trucks that display “Green Pizza Machines” on the sides of the vehicles. Ozinga Ready Mix, a family-owned business in Mokena, is believed to be the first concrete company in the country to convert 14 of its mixing trucks to run on natural gas. SCR Medical Transportation, a family run paratransit service in the Chicago area, operates 20 natural gas vans and shuttles for people needing mobility assistance. In addition, GO Airport Express operates two propane and two natural gas-powered shuttle vans and Yellow Cab Chicago has 79 natural gas taxis; both companies operate from O’Hare and Midway airports. Other Green Fleets that are being acknowledged at the event are Northern Illinois University in DeKalb that uses E85, biodiesel, natural gas, and hybrid vehicles in many of its trucks, buses, campus police cars, and other campus vehicles and equipment; Chicago Park District that has E85, biodiesel, natural gas, hybrids and electric vehicles; Dillon Transport of Burr Ridge that uses E85 in the company’s flex fuel vehicles; Foodliner of Franklin Park that operates six Freightliner trucks on natural gas; and the DuPage County Division of Transportation that has nearly half its fleet running on E85, biodiesel, natural gas and electricity.    ###

News Release from the DOE - Nat Gas & Biofuels Funding

President Obama Announces Funding for Breakthroughs in Natural Gas and Biofuels as Alternative Fuels for Vehicles

February 23, 2012 

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, President Obama announced new funding to catalyze breakthrough technologies for two key alternative fuels – natural gas and biofuels – as part of his all-of-the-above energy strategy to reduce our reliance on foreign oil and provide American families new choices for vehicles that do not rely on conventional gasoline.   Through its Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy (ARPA-E), the Energy Department will make $30 million available for a new research competition in the coming months that will engage our country’s brightest scientists, engineers and entrepreneurs to find ways to harness our abundant supplies of domestic natural gas for vehicles. The Department of Energy will also make $14 million available to support research and development into biofuels from algae.  These programs will spur American innovation and encourage scientific breakthroughs that will help diversify the nation’s energy portfolio, grow American companies, and develop alternative vehicle technologies that do not rely on oil.

President Obama announced the programs during a speech at the University of Miami in Miami, Florida, where he toured the school’s Industrial Assessment Center (IAC), an Energy Department program that teaches students how to become industrial energy efficiency experts as they help small- to mid-sized manufacturers cut energy costs.

“As President Obama made clear in his State of the Union address, in order to build a strong economy and reduce our dependence on foreign oil, we must invest in developing American energy sources like natural gas and biofuels,” said Energy Secretary Steven Chu. “Through the new programs announced today, we can help revolutionize the way Americans fuel their cars, saving money for families and businesses while building new industries here in the United States.”

Funding Breakthroughs in Natural Gas Vehicles


ARPA-E’s $30 million funding announcement for natural gas breakthroughs build on President Obama’s call for a new era for American energy that benefits from the safe, responsible development of the near 100-year supply of American natural gas, which has the potential to support more than 600,000 U.S. jobs. Today’s natural gas vehicle technologies require tanks that can withstand high pressures, are cumbersome and either too large or too expensive to be suitable for passenger vehicles. ARPA-E’s projects under this new program, titled Methane Opportunities for Vehicular Energy - or “MOVE” - will focus on overcoming these barriers by developing innovative, low-cost natural gas storage technologies and methods to lower pressure in vehicle tanks that will help enable the widespread adoption of natural gas vehicles.

Specifically, ARPA-E seeks to fund projects that will develop lightweight tanks for cars that can run on natural gas and fit into modern passenger vehicles. This approach includes developing affordable natural gas compressors that can efficiently fuel a natural gas vehicle at home. ARPA-E also seeks to fund projects that will develop absorbing materials that are able to hold gas, similar to how a sponge holds water.  These materials could lower pressure in vehicle tanks that hold and release natural gas, making them safer and more affordable for American consumers.

President Obama launched ARPA-E in 2009 to seek out transformational, breakthrough technologies that are too risky for private-sector investment but have the potential to translate science into quantum leaps in energy technology, form the foundation for entirely new industries, and have large commercial impacts. Demonstrating the success ARPA-E has already seen, the program announced last year that eleven of its projects secured more than $200 million in outside private capital investment after initial funding from its programs.  Today’s announcement begins ARPA-E’s fifth round of funding. To date, ARPA-E has hosted four rounds of competitions and attracted over 5,000 applications from research teams, which has resulted in 180 groundbreaking projects worth over $500 million. For more information and application requirements for the Funding Opportunity Announcement, please visit https://arpa-e-foa.energy.gov/.

Funding to Develop Homegrown Transportation Fuels from Algae

The Energy Department’s $14 million funding announcement to develop transportation fuels from algae builds on an Administration-wide commitment to biofuels research, development, and demonstration that includes support for the construction of commercial-scale, next-generation biorefineries. Part of the Department’s sustained investment in biofuels technologies focuses on unlocking the potential for homegrown transportation fuels from algae, which have the potential to replace up to 17 percent of the United States’ imported oil for transportation. In addition, algae feedstocks offer additional benefits, such as an ability to be grown in ponds near industrial facilities where algae can feed off the carbon emissions from power plants or digest nitrogen and phosphorous from municipal waste water.  The Department is currently supporting more than 30 algae-based biofuels projects, representing $85 million in total investments.

Through the new funding announcement, the Department will seek proposals from small businesses, universities, and national laboratories to modify existing facilities for long-term algae research and test new production processes that could lead to commercial biofuels made from algae. Specifically, the new projects will establish and operate research “test beds” for algal biofuels that can facilitate development, test new approaches to algae production, and discover innovative ways to minimize the water and nutrients needed to mass produce algae for commercial biofuels. These advanced research projects will aim to significantly improve the sustainability of algae-based biofuels and accelerate technological breakthroughs.  These awards represent the first phase in a total $30 million investment in algal biofuels in fiscal year 2012.

The competitively selected projects will receive up to $14.3 million in fiscal year 2012 funds, with an additional $6.7 million available in fiscal year 2014 funding, subject to Congressional appropriations, for projects that meet rigorous performance criteria. Applications are due on April 18, 2012. For more information and application requirements for the Funding Opportunity Announcement, please visit the Funding Opportunity Exchange website.