CleanFUEL USA • Georgetown

CleanFUEL USA • Georgetown

By Beth Wade Friday, 13 June 2008

As the price of gas continues to rise around the country, people are beginning to look for alternative fuels. Curtis Donaldson is doing his part to make them accessible.

Donaldson began CleanFUEL USA in Georgetown in 1993 with three employees. Now, 15 years later, the company has 38 employees in Georgetown, an office in India with 33 employees and a new start-up office in Argentina.

CleanFUEL USA manufactures and distributes fuel stations, dispensing devices and engine systems for alternative fuels, including propane and E85, which is 85 percent alcohol and 15 percent gasoline. Propane is typically used in fleet vehicles and school buses, while E85 is used in flex-fuel cars, trucks and vans.

“We really believe that even back in the early 1990s, there was a need for alternative fuels and there was going to be a market in the United States — but there wasn’t,” Donaldson said. “We immediately turned our attention international and sold dispensers we made here in Georgetown to about 23 different countries. Basically, for the first five or six years, we lived off of international sales.”

The company did business in Texas during that time, but had limited sales in other states, Donaldson said.

“There was some business in Texas, but it was kind of Texas and the world. There wasn’t much else going on in the United States,” he said.

Donaldson first became aware of alternative fuel while working at Conoco Oil Co. He joined the company after graduating from Texas A&M University. The oil company believed there was a need for alternative fuel and started up a work group, which was basically only Donaldson, to study options, he said. When the price of crude oil dropped, Conoco dropped its alternative fuel division.

“I was really excited about [alternative fuels] because I thought [using them] was the right thing to do,” Donaldson said. “I really fell in love with alternative fuels and the whole concept so I quit [when they shut down the alternative fuel division] and started this company.”

Donaldson, who at that time was living and working in Houston, knew he wanted to move back to Central Texas, where he grew up.

“I drove through Georgetown one day and said, ‘This is the city I want to start my business in,’” he said.

Georgetown is home to two CleanFUEL facilities, the company’s headquarters and a manufacturing facility that also includes research and development.

The company works mainly with two alternative fuels, but Donaldson said he does not believe there is a single solution to the oil situation.

“We believe you are going to need all alternative fuels. It helps us mitigate our need for foreign oil. There is no silver bullet. None of these fuels are going to be the answer,” he said. “We think it is going to take a menu of fuels, and we are always going to need oil and gas. We are never going to get away from gas — there is no way — but if we can balance it per gallon from 60 percent imported, if we could just back that down 15 percent, we could be a little pickier who we get our imports from.”

CleanFUEL USA now has propane fleet options for trucks and school buses. For more information on fleet vehicles and alternative fuels, visit www.CleanFUELusa.com.

Curtis Donaldson’s three E’s of propane

• Economical - After the government offered 50-cent rebates through the Energy Bill of 2005, some school districts are paying about $1.80 a gallon versus $4.35 for diesel fuel.
• Environmentally friendly - The system on an 8.1-liter engine or on a school bus is the cleanest truck in the world, Donaldson said. It meets all the Environmental Protection Agency requirements. Propane is a very clean-burning fuel.
• Energy independence - Ninety percent of propane is made in the United States, and a good portion of that is made in Texas. Most of the country’s surplus is stored outside Houston.

CleanFUEL USA, 1104 S. Church St., 864-0300