Man travels cross-country using Poet fuel in his vehicle

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Tom Holm, executive director of EcoTrek, stands in front of the pickup he is using to make a 10,000-mile, coast-tocoast trip with E85 cellulosic ethanol as his exclusive fuel source. Holm visited the Poet Research Center on Tuesday in Scotland, where this photo was taken. (Chris Huber/Republic Photo)

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SCOTLAND — An environmental advocate from California is trying to raise awareness about the benefits of cellulosic ethanol by traveling cross-country in a flex-fuel pickup powered by the renewable fuel.

Tom Holm, of Thousand Oaks, Calif., is the founder of EcoTrek, a nonprofit organization that conducts research and education programs to advance the use of renewable fuels and materials.

Holm started his journey on Jan. 11 from the Santa Monica Pier, with plans to visit Coney Island in New York. He was in Scotland on Tuesday. Upcoming stops include Detroit, Atlanta, New Orleans and Phoenix. The tour will end in March in Santa Monica.

He recalled Tuesday the first time he held a bottle of cellulosic ethanol in his hands.

“I felt like I was holding gold in my hands,” Holm said. “I felt like I was holding the holy grail of renewable fuels.… I still feel that’s the potential for cellulosic ethanol.”

Holm started out as the host of “Adventure Highway,” a television show featuring his adventures on the road on the former Outdoor Life Network. A combination of personal and external events, including having a valet etch “Polluting (expletive)” on his truck, prompted him to form EcoTrek and propose an unsuccessful effort to film adventures using environmentally friendly fuel in his vehicle.

The loss of his show prompted him to focus on his organization. He bought a Chevrolet dually fueled by vegetable oil and a 900-horsepower Hummer H2 that ran on biodiesel fuel and vegetable oil. The Hummer on vegetable oil produced 24 miles per gallon, making international news, he said.

Holm began to monitor the progress of cellulosic ethanol and decided he wanted to track the growth of the fuel. That ethanol is produced using biomass materials, such as corn cobs and light stover.

Holm contacted Nathan Schock, Poet public relations director, about wanting to drive to the Specialty Equipment Market Association’s car show in Las Vegas last November in a vehicle fueled by cellulosic ethanol and asked for some of Poet’s stock. Schock sent him a small amount.

The pilot plant in Scotland produces 20,000 gallons a year, while the cellulosic ethanol plant in Emmetsburg, Iowa, will generate 25 million gallons a year, Schock said. Construction will start in late summer or early fall, with completion in late 2012, he said.

Knowing that Poet planned to build the plant in northwest Iowa, Holm told Schock the fuel needed to be tested. He pitched the idea of running a flex-fuel vehicle on cellulosic ethanol cross-country 10,000 miles and documenting any problems or improved performance.

“I challenged Nathan to allow me to do this with full exposure, with complete transparency,” Holm said. “If cellulosic ethanol failed on me, I was going to let the world know that. If it had performance enhancements, I, of course, was going to let the world know that as well.”

Schock admitted that he laughed at the idea. But the more Poet officials thought about the tour, the more it seemed like a good idea.

“We kept talking and decided we wanted to participate along with him on the tour,” he said.

Holm bought a Ford F250 pickup with a flex-fuel engine and added a third fuel tank, giving the vehicle a capacity of 300 gallons. He added polished aluminum wheels made in America, tires made in the United States with clean oil from Europe and Mohawk carpet created from recycled bottles.

Poet shipped E85 cellulosic ethanol — 85 percent cellulosic ethanol and 15 percent gasoline — to Holm at the start of his tour, with the same plan for when he stops in Atlanta or Dallas, Schock said.

So far, Holm has traveled 3,000 miles, stopping in Scotland at the pilot plant Tuesday to fill up for the first time on his nationwide trek.

His gas mileage has been as much as 14 miles per gallon and as low as nine miles per gallon in the Rockies.

In addition to testing the fuel, Holm touts the importance of reaching out to smaller communities and people who will benefit the most from the fuel.

“This is a message that needs to be heard across the country,” he said.

Holm will drive the truck to the Chicago Auto Show to demonstrate that alternative fuels exist and to meet with Detroit automakers.

He also hopes awareness of cellulosic ethanol raised by the tour will generate demand for an environmentally friendly fuel using field residue.

“I have to believe that demand is going to be great,” Holm said.

Tags: news, scotland, ecotrek, poet, environment