While shared-ride transportation is inherently eco-friendly, many members of The GO Group, the world’s largest airport shuttle provider, are going one step further.

GO companies serving San Francisco International, Seattle-Tacoma International, Milwaukee’s GeneralMitchell International, Dallas-Ft. Worth and Puerto Rico’s Luis Munoz Marin International are converting all or part of their fleets to alternative fuels – either compressed natural gas (CNG) or propane.

While GO companies in Los Angeles (serving all southern California airports) and Chicago (serving Midway and O’Hare) also are in the process of doing so. CNG is a fossil fuel, while propane is a by-product of natural gas processing and petroleum refining.  Both burn cleaner than gasoline or diesel fuels, although CNG is considered the cleaner of the two.

Companies that convert to alternative fuels can earn a 50 cents-per-gallon tax credit as well other incentives from local government and the airports. GO Shuttle Express in Seattle, which has 43 propane-fueled vehicles, began the conversion process last January and has 20 more systems to install.

According to J. R. Rowley, president of GO Shuttle Express, the fuel saving has been around $2 per gallon.  Maintenance costs, however, have been slightly higher due to the learning curve. In San Francisco, GO Lorries has adapted 16 vans to CNG, with another 28 to be retrofitted for CNG by May. ”The conversions are expensive,” says Julio Bonilla, president, “but the fuel savings mitigate the cost.”

As of December, GO Riteway Transportation Group in Milwaukee has moved 21 of its 500-vehicle fleet to propane, experiencing a $7,000 fuel savings since October. According to Jason Ebert, fleet and facilities coordinator, the maintenance costs are lower as oil changes can now be performed every 7,000 rather than every 5,000 miles as in the past.

Ebert reports one reason GO Riteway opted for propane is that it is 90 percent as efficient as gasoline, which allows for a greater vehicle range than CNG, which is only 31 percent efficient.  Also, the cost of a propane conversion is one third less than the cost of a CNG conversion.

The GO Group LLC is a one-stop source for airport shuttles, which transport some 13 million passengers to and from airports in the United States, Mexico, Canada and Europe.

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The Philippine government passed a Biofuels Act in 2006, requiring ethanol-blended gasoline to make up at least 10% of the total gasoline sold worldwide by February 2012.

Platts, a global provider of energy and metal information and source of benchmark price assessments in the physical energy markets, has today launched the world’s first daily price assessments, capturing the value of ethanol delivered to the Philippines.

“The Philippines, like many governments around the world, is in the midst of implementing guidelines and proposals for reducing the use of fossil fuels, in favor of greener, more renewable fuels, such as E-10,” said Ihsan Rahim, managing editor of petrochemicals, Asia, for Platts.

“We believe these new assessments, which reflect a key biofuels trading hub and prices for one of the largest ethanol consumers in the Asia-Pacific region, will help bring greater transparency not only to the Philippine ethanol market, but to the developing ethanol market at large,” said Rahim.

Platts says that the four new prices will reflect trends in the market, with focus on the production of ‘green’ gasoline blends.

So-called green gasoline is blended with undenatured andhrous ethanol.

The assessments will be published daily, and will cover:

•    Three spot market price assessments of undenatured ethanol as delivered to Manila, Subic Bay and Batangas
•    Spot market price assessment of undenatured ethanol in Singapore loaded cargoes

Platt’s says that assessments are covered in the Phillippines Biofuels Act of 2006.

According to Platts, the Philippines imports 160,000 to 200,000 cubic metres of ethanol per year, with imports projected to double over the next few years, as the Biofuels Act comes closer to full implementation.

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