Ohio Groups to Use $29 Million for Alternative Fuel and Advanced Vehicle Projects
By John O'Dell February 24, 2010
Almost 300 Ohio-based fleet vehicles - about of quarter of them taxis - will be converted to run on propane, compressed natural gas or electricity as a Columbus-based nonprofit uses Energy Department grant and other funding to help broaden the use of greener fuels and vehicles.
Alliance Autogas and the nonprofit Clean Fuels Ohio will use part of an $11 million federal stimulus grant to install 15 propane pumps around the state including stations at facilities operated by Cleveland's Yellow Cab and Ace Taxi and Green Cabs of Columbus.
Additionally, the Ohio Advanced Transportation Partnership will use about $18 million in funds contributed by its members to help deploy 280 vehicles using the various alternative fuels.
Most of the vehicles will be used in government and utility fleets and specifics on the types and numbers of cars and trucks to be included in those programs have not yet been made available.
But Alliance Autogas - a propane distributor - said it will use its funding for the propane stations and to retrofit 77 taxis for the cab companies to run on propane. The fuel, usually called liquefied petroleum gas or LPG when used as a vehicle fuel, is a byproduct of oil refining and natural gas processing.
It is considered a good alternative to gasoline for fleet vehicles because, like compressed natural gas, it is cheaper, burns cleaner and is mostly a domestic product.
Proponents of propane and CNG say vehicles operated by cab companies, municipalities and utility companies are ideal for conversion to those gases because their centralized fleet operations allow for single on-site refueling stations.
Danny King, Contributor
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Thank you. Something not about batteries or ethanol.
Didn't most taxis run on propane a couple decades ago? I remember they were everywhere in Canada and seem to have disappeared completely. An experiment that failed I guess.
firstwagon, I know you've been able to get Crown Vics that burn all kinds of fuel, but they were never all that popular south of the border.
A lot of them were aftermarket conversions (Impalas too). The big draw was rebates to get the swap done and propane being less then half the price of gas.
The drawbacks were mileage was quite a bit worse on propane and tanks didn't hold much so range was short. They were also hard to start in the winter so drivers tended to leave them running on really cold days. Now propane isn't the big bargain anymore and I doubt you can convert a modern car so they all seem to have gone to Priuses.
A plus of the propane era was a lot of off roaders grabbed the propane kits off old taxies and installed them on their old trucks. Eased the pain of 10 mpg and the propane injection will work at all angles unlike a carb.
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