Iowa Army National Guard Launches E85 Mission

(FlexFuelUS) The Iowa Army National Guard is a force to be reckoned with when it comes to the deployment of ethanol. More than half o f its 577
non-tactical vehicles a t Camp Dodge nowrunonE85thankstoaconcerted commitment to meet or exceed Department of Defense (DOD) sustainability goals for the U.S. Army.

Camp Dodge, located in central Iowa where the Iowa Army National Guard’s fleet of vehicles is housed, has been incorporating flexible fuel vehicles (FFVs) into its operations for the past three years. To do so, the base began by converting some o f its existing conventional vehicles t o be able t o operate on high- level ethanol blends.

Camp Dodge shop foreman Jim Russell worked with Chicago-based Flex Fuel U.S., which offers EPA-certified conversion kits that government fleets can order through the U.S. General Services Administration. Flex Fuel U.S. provided training and certification o n kit installations. Russell can now install a kit in two hours. As of July, he and two technicians had completed 5 0 conversions at the cost of about $900 per vehicle.

...The Iowa Army National Guard has purchased more E85 vehicles and now over half of the 577 non-tactical vehicles a t Camp Dodge run on E85. The FFVs are saving about $200,000 annually in fuel costs. The vehicle technicians have also found that they no longer have to clean out the carbon build up from the intakes of vehicles that run on E85. READ MORE and MORE