LAWRENCE, KS – Lawrence, Kan., is the site of the nation’s first E-15 fueling station, but the City’s fleet manager says there are no plans to have City vehicles fuel with E-15. Rather, the City is focusing on natural gas.

“We have no immediate plans to move to E-15,” said Steve Stewart, fleet manager. “Ninety percent of our fleet is Ford. We may test a few of our E-85 vehicles on it just see what the mileage and performance are like.” He added that part of the problem in using E-15 at the station is the logistics of switching part of the fleet to E-15 and leaving the rest to fuel at the City’s two stations.

Although the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in June formally approved E-15 for light-duty vehicles MY-2001 and later, prior experience with higher levels of ethanol makes Stewart hesitant to transition: “We had some issues with our bulk suppliers last year, when corn prices were down and gas was high. We were buying E-10 and starting having run problems in some trucks. We found the mix to be greater than E-10 and had to stop using it for a while,” he recounted.

The City is instead working with Black Hills Energy on natural gas fueling. Stewart said the City uses one pickup truck that is CNG/gasoline dual-fuel, converted by Black Hills Energy. Drivers fuel using CNG from a Black Hills fueling station. Scott Zaremba, the E-15 station owner, has expressed interest in adding CNG fueling to one of his stations, according to Stewart.

The fuel station that offers E-15 blends fuel options there and allows customers to choose between E-10, E-15, and other blends through blender pumps.

By Thi Dao