Flex Fuel for Ethanol Conversion

(Post: English)
" Watching a program on Brazil's ethanol-fueled cars one evening in his Streeterville home, Mitch Sremac wondered: What would it take for people in the U.S. to start running their cars on alcohol, too? "

For today's fleet, his answer was a fuel-conversion kit.

After 18 months of tinkering and $1 million from friends and family, Sremac, 55, an auto-parts company president, built just such a device - the first to be certified by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency - and established Flex Fuel U.S., with himself as chief executive, in October.

The Flex-Box Smart Kit is about the size of an old Walkman and mounts under the hood of a car.

It automatically sips the fuel to determine its alcohol level and throttles the fuel injector accordingly.

The kit allows cars to drive smoothly on everything from E85, a blend of 85% ethanol and 15% gasoline, to pure gasoline.

Flex Fuel is field-testing its product in a Chicago police car and hopes to begin retailing the kit at $1,295 in April.

INFO:
Flex-Box Smart Kit is a compact unit that mounts in the engine compartment. It continuously monitors engine's emissions, then delivers supplementary fuel injection to allow vehicle to operate at optimal performance - no matter what fuel blend is in the tank.

Source: BusinessWeek , Flex Fuel U.S.