ETHANOL EFFICIENCY

By indycar.com staff

Rahal Letterman Racing's Ryan Hunter-Reay recently toured LifeLine Foods in St. Joseph, Mo. -- the official supplier of the 100 percent fuel-grade ethanol used by the IndyCar Series in 2008 - for a close-up view of the process.

"I knew a little about it before," said Hunter-Reay, driver of the No. 17 Ethanol car. "But just the amount I've learned about it in the past months has really made me a believer with ethanol in the United States being part of the answer to our fuel crisis."

Life Line Foods provides about 120,000 gallons of the renewable fuel throughout the season. The company adds to equation by using corn to produce food and fuel for the facility's energy needs. One portion of the corn kernel is processed and marketed to the food industry while the remainder is used for, among other things, cattle feed and energy needs.

Utilizing a bran energy recovery system, total plant energy needs are reduced by about 50 percent. This method insures that the company is getting the most value out of corn, benefiting the agriculture, food and ethanol industries.

"It's extremely exciting for LifeLine Foods being the first facility in the second-generation of ethanol production," said Mike Sobetski, COO of LifeLine Foods. "With all of the innovation that we have at our facility, it marries up very well with the (IndyCar Series) and the innovation that they have going around the track.

"It's extremely exciting for us to represent not only the member-owners of LifeLine Foods, our immediate community in St. Joseph, Mo., but also the entire fuel ethanol manufacturing center in the U.S. It's a tremendous opportunity for us to showcase the virtues of fuel ethanol here on the racetrack and hope that people that witness it can also see the virtues of using the product in their own automobiles, driving around their communities."