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There is little doubt American drivers have a troubling addiction to oil.

Ninety-seven percent of the nation’s transportation energy comes from petroleum and 70 percent of that is imported. The fallout is not just bad for the environment but for national security. Billions of dollars is pumped into the hands of autocratic Middle Eastern nations.

Demand from drives for alternative fuels is ahead of expectations, says Matt Horton

Dozens of startups hope to turn the tables on this unhealthy but potentially lucrative market, including Propel Fuels of Sacramento.

The 14-person company has 11 filling stations for biodiesel and E85 and plans to build another 500 in California alone.

So far the demand at its Sacramento facility, opened in January, has been ahead of expectations, says Matt Horton, CEO.

Horton, during an appearance at the Dow Jones Alternative Energy Innovations conference in Redwood Shores, said the equipment his company provides for filling stations is proving low cost enough to deploy widely. The least expensive offering its about $100,000.

Horton said his goal is to build a consumer brand. It also is to raise another $5 million in venture financing.

The company had 2008 revenue of more than $1 million. But it is just getting started.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 22nd, 2009 at 10:14 am and is filed under Alternative Energy, Clean Tech, news. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.