Greater Philadelphia Clean Cities Program Receives More Than
$130,000 To Build State’s First Ethanol Fuel Station
PHILADELPHIA —For the
first time anywhere in Penn
sylvania, drivers will be able to
fill flexible fuel vehicles with
ethanol, a clean-burning alter
native to gasoline.
Ethanol is an alcohol de
rived primarily from com.
Most newer model pick-ups,
vans, cars and some SUVs are
certified to run on fuel blends,
including a mix of gasoline
and ethanol.
A quick way to tell if you
can fill up on an ethanol blend
is to check the inside of the
gas cap for the flexible fuel ve
hide designation. Timing and
plans for the new station,
made possible by grants from
the United States Department
of Energy (U.S. DOE) and
Pennsylvania’s Department of
Environmental Protection,
were revealed recently.
“For the sake of energy se
curity, our country needs to
address its addiction to petro
leum, much of which must be
imported from volatile regions
of the world,” said GPCCP
Coordinator Eric Cheung.
“The feedstock for ethanol in
cludes agricultural products
Got Ethanol?
such as com and switchgrass.
These crops, grown by farm
ers, make ethanol an Ameri
can fuel, and consumers who
buy the fuel will help keep en
ergy dollars at home.”
Ethanol is sold commercial
ly as a blend of 85 percent
ethanol and 15 percent gaso
line, known as ESS. In addi
tion to energy security bene
fits, ESS also reduces smog
forming compounds and toxic
air pollutants.
The ESS retail pump will be
located at the Sunoco station
on 12th and Vine streets and
is anticipated to be open to the
Lancaster Farming, Saturday, October 18, 2003, Corn Talk-Ell
public by May 2004. ESS
prices will be comparable to
the price of premium gasoline.
As local construction of etha
nol plants occurs, prices will
drop even more as consumers
in Minnesota and Illinois can
testify.
Clean Cities anticipates
that initial users of ESS in our
region will be local govern
ment fleet operators, but out
reach efforts will include the
general public. “Imagine the
conversation at the pump as a
Dodge Caravan filled with
members of the community
soccer team pulls in to refuel
with EB5 - the educational op
portunities will be as big as
the benefits to the economy,”
said Cheung. Flexible fiiel
ethanol vehicles are the most
numerous of the alternative
fuel vehicles produced. To
verify whether your vehicle
can operate on ESS, log on to
the National Ethanol Vehicle
Coalition’s Website,
www.eBsfuel.com.
A consulting firm, Sustain
able Energy Strategies, Inc.,
has partnered with Clean Cit
ies to install the ESS pump.
Check this Website:
www.cleanair.org/cleancities.
Ohio Popcorn
Production Grows
COLUMBUS, Ohio In the world of
Ohio’s specialty crops, popcorn is probably
the most overlooked.
But despite its quiet presence, the crop has
a firm foothold in Ohio agriculture. The
state is ranked fourth in the nation in pop
corn production (behind Nebraska, Indiana,
and Iowa) with industry estimates ranging
from 60,000 to 65,000 acres and interest in
the crop continues to grow.
“Popcorn is a quiet crop that you don’t
hear a lot about,” said Peter Thomison, an
Ohio State University Extension agronomist.
“But more growers are growing it, mainly
because of the demand from end users and
an Ohio market to sell the product.”
Popcorn, unlike field dent com, is a type
of flint com, grown to maturity in the field.
By comparison, sweet com is harvested half
way through the grain fill period.
“Popcorn is considered a specialty crop,
but is grown much like field com,” said Tho
mison. “However, unlike field com, it’s har
vested as pounds per acre rather than bush
els per acre.”
Popcorn is grown mainly throughout
northwest Ohio. According to the Van Wert
County office of Ohio State University Ex
tension, the county leads the state with most
acres of popcorn harvested and accounts for
more than 3 percent of popcorn production
in the United States.
Thomison said popcorn is one of the
“healthiest” specialty crops grown in Ohio
with local buyer outlets and markets avail
able for contracted growers to deal with. But
the crop does have its agronomic problems.
“One problem with popcorn is that it can
lodge badly, more so than regular field
com,” said Thomison. “This could be that
there hasn’t been a lot of hybrid develop
ment for growers and the hybrids that are
available don’t have stalk quality compara
ble to dent com hybrids.”
Lodging is a weather-related condition in
which stalks fall over, making harvest diffi
cult and resulting in loss of yields.
Growers interested in popcorn production
can obtain information from several national
Websites, including:
www.agcom.purdue.edu/AgCom/Pubs/
NCH/NCH-s.html; http://oregon
state.edu/Dept/NWREC/popcorn.html;
www.ianr.unl.edu/pubs/fieldcrops/g426.htm;
www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/afcm/
popcom.html; and www.agmrc.org/corn/
pc.html.
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