Driving into the future with biofuels

MercuryNews.com
By Suzanne Bohan
Contra Costa Times
Posted: 05/02/2009 12:29:59 PM PDT
Updated: 05/03/2009 08:54:44 AM PDT

When the first Model T left the assembly line in 1908, by design it could run on ethanol or gas. Henry Ford, the car's manufacturer, added that flexibility because he envisioned a day when ethanol — made from crops grown on American soil — would provide the bulk of fuel for motor vehicles.

"He talked about ethanol being the fuel of the future," said Bob Casey, curator of transportation for The Henry Ford, a Ford Motor Co. history complex in Dearborn, Mich.

"It was part of this larger dream he had of merging agriculture and industry," Casey said. Prohibition politics stymied his efforts to make ethanol — a type of alcohol — and like scientists today, he tangled with the technical challenges of mass producing plant-based fuel. With petroleum cheap and plentiful, Ford's vision of creating a homegrown energy supply to power the nation's growing fleet faded into history.

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