Alternative fuels like ethanol may be the answer to rising fuel prices brought on by Hurricane Katrina.

Katrina halted the operations of oil platforms, pipelines and refineries along the Gulf Coast, worsening an already severe energy crisis. Increased ethanol production could help alleviate the problem, some ISU officials said.

“Ethanol can help fill some of the void, but it can’t fill all of it,” said Chad Hart, research scientist for the Center for Agricultural and Rural Development.

Hart said ethanol can only play a limited role in easing the nation’s energy crisis, because most fuel-containing ethanol is composed of 90 percent gasoline.

Fuel with a small proportion of ethanol won’t make a significant impact on gas prices, he said.

Some vehicles in production now, called flexible fuel vehicles, can burn fuel composed of up to 100 percent ethanol, he said. For example, a type of ethanol or gasoline mixture called E85 contains 85 percent ethanol. According to Ethanol.org, flexible fuel vehicles that can use E85 and similar fuels have been in production for years by most major automakers.

“With these newer types of vehicles, ethanol could fill the kind of demand we’re seeing,” Hart said.

Stephen Andrle, director of the Center for Transportation Research and Education, also stressed the importance of production and distribution of ethanol.

“Ethanol can clearly play a role if the supply is there,” he said.

Because ethanol use and distribution are relatively new, it could be years before the nation realizes ethanol’s full potential, he said.

“If we make the commitment right now, I’d guess it would take 10 years before the country could fully adjust to ethanol,” he said.

Andrle said Hurricane Katrina had a crippling effect on the nation’s oil supply.

“We’ve lost too much, and you can’t turn an industry that quickly for ethanol to have a huge effect,” he said.

Norman Olson, engineer for the Iowa Energy Center, said he expects ethanol to play a positive but limited role in Katrina’s aftermath.

“I don’t think ethanol will be used for anything we haven’t already used it for,” he said, “but I think it will be used more prevalently.”

Hart said he agreed that distribution poses a major obstacle ethanol would have to overcome before it could significantly ease the nation’s energy woes.

Although extensive pipeline systems move gasoline around the country, no such system exists for the distribution of ethanol, he said.

“Ethanol mostly has to be trucked, which makes it easier to contaminate,” he said. “An infrastructure would have to be developed to distribute it.”

Hart said Iowa, the nation’s leading ethanol producer, would have to play a prominent role in both the production and distribution of ethanol.

“There’s currently great expansion of production in the state,” he said. “There are several new plants being built in Iowa right now.”

Olson said he agreed, saying ethanol’s future in Iowa looks bright.

“We’re going to be the biggest ethanol producing state this year, and the production will most likely increase,” he said.

“Who produces the most ethanol is obviously tied to who produces the most corn, and fortunately for Iowa, ethanol plants have experienced some economic success the last few years.”