Narrator: This is Science Today. The Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, which is managed by the University of California, has the first ethanol dispensing station in Northern California. Don Prestella, fleet supervisor at the Berkeley Lab, says this cleaner-burning, high-octane alternative to gasoline is powering 60 vehicles in the lab’s onsite motor pool, making it the largest ethanol-powered fleet in the state.

Prestella: The laboratory really feels that the main benefit of this is being able to actually really make a difference with the environment. There’s a lot less fluorocarbons from ethanol. It’s the most clean-burning fuel available and it just seems like the only alternative right at the moment for us.

Narrator: Ethanol is 85% distilled from biomass products such as corn and 15% gasoline. The lab’s new ethanol station also includes an above ground, four thousand gallon tank to feed the new ethanol pump.

Prestella: It’s the first on the West coast, the first in Northern California and we are mostly proud of that.

Narrator: For Science Today, I’m Larissa Branin.