Technical Paper
Transitional Strategies for Alternative Fuel Supply Infrastructure: Moving from Fuel Flexible to Dedicated Vehicles
1995-10-01
952377
California's experience with fuel methanol holds lessons for infrastructure development efforts for other alternative fuels and suggests strategic approaches for developing future infrastructure to serve dedicated vehicles: 1. Vehicle/engine capability to utilize “dedicated” (neat) fuels in a fuel-flexible mode; this requires large investments to meet initially small markets. 2. “Strategic dispersal”, placing stations along primary transportation corridors and in “target areas” determined by proximity to alternative fuel fleets; adopted in the California Enery Commission's M85 network. 3. Massive infrastructure development effort, coupled with the financial depth to persist until fuel throughput reaches economically sustainable levels. This approach may be unstable if tied solely to the fortunes of a single company. 4. “Strategic concentration,” the development of a dense fueling network in delimited areas, allowing the incremental deployment of dedicated fuel vehicles.