Team Attempting World Alternative Fuel Driving Record
Refuels at Clean Energy Station in Dallas

WHAT: A four-man team’s attempt to set an alternative fuel world driving record was scheduled to make a refueling stop in Dallas Friday.

WHO AND WHY: With a look at the automotive future, 36-year-old German national Rainer Zietlow and three-man expedition team are demonstrating that compressed natural gas is a feasible and globally available technology by being the first to drive a standard natural gas vehicle 50,000 kilometers around the world powered only by fuel purchased en route. This global journey — which has included jaunts through the Himalaya, Middle East and Australian desert — is the ultimate test for vehicles, intended to prove that natural gas as a fuel constitutes a full substitute and ecological alternative for petrol and diesel.

WHEN AND WHERE: At about 10 a.m. Friday, Zietlow will pull his Volkswagen Caddy EcoFuel into the Clean Energy Fuels Love Field Airport station, located at 8000 Denton Drive, to refuel.

THE ROUTE: From Cologne, Germany, the team traveled via Vienna to Istanbul, Damascus and then to Cairo. From Egypt their route took them to Teheran and Bombay, through the Himalaya range and into China. Then it was on to Bangkok, Singapore, and then Australia. From the southernmost point of the record trip, the car was air-shipped to Chile.

From there, the next great cross-national leg led via Argentina, Brazil, and Mexico to the United States. It will go on to Canada before it is shipped back to Germany by airplane, where it will continue to its final destination in Leipzig at the Auto Mobil International car show.

MORE INFORMATION:

Zietlow, who in 2005 drove a standard Volkswagen Touareg to a height of 6,081 meters in Chile, setting a new high altitude world record for standard cars, organized the EcoFuel effort, and is driving, accompanied by a support vehicle with a mechanic, cameraman, and photographer.

Before the team completes its adventure April 13 in Leipzig, it will have traveled from Cologne in late October of 2006 through 75 cities in 40 countries.

Other team members include Falk Gunold, who is doing film and editorial work; Florian Hilpert, technician and driver of the support vehicle, Volkswagen Transporter Kombi; and Franz Janusiewicz, photography and electronic communication.

For every kilometer driven, Rainer Zietlow’s team will make a donation of 10 cents to the SOS Children’s Village in Banglaore/India. The international SOS Children’s Village organization has made it its business to help children wherever they might need help and care.

Clean Energy is the leading provider of vehicular natural gas (CNG and LNG) and related services in the United States. It has a broad customer base in the refuse, transit, shuttle, taxi, police, trucking, airport and municipal fleet markets with tens of thousands of vehicles fueling at strategic locations across the U.S. and Canada. Richardson-based GreenField Compression Inc., which develops and manufacturers the most reliable, technologically advanced, leading edge equipment available for NGV Applications, supplied the compressor and dispenser at the 24-hour Love Field refueling station.

About the World Tour: http://www.ecofuel-world-tour.com/

About Clean Energy Fuels: http://www.cleanenergyfuels.com/

About GreenField Compression: http://www.greenfieldcompression.com/html/high_pressure.html

TRIP SPONSORS: VW Commercial Vehicles; international gas provider OMV; TÜV Rheinland, Walker (automotive supplier company); Endress + Hauser (measurement and process engineering); ADNOC (mineral oil company); Landi Renzo (CNG systems manufacturer); Schenker (logistics); Swagelok (fluid systems products); Stäubli (engineering); LuK (automotive supplier company); Raufoss (automotive supplier company); Michelin (tires); Panasonic (electronics); Nikon (photographic equipment).