Product aims to raise gas mileage
Chemist Frank Norman is trying to fire up the economic engine for Diesel/Gas Go!
LEWISTON – Frank Norman knows he’s got a winning product – he just wishes it would get up and go.
Norman, a chemist and former sales rep with Atlantic Richfield oil company, has developed a fuel additive that he believes enhances gas mileage and cuts emissions. But trying to get testing to certify his claims has proved frustrating for a man operating from his Pagoma Lane home office on a shoestring budget.
“There’s no guardian angel or venture capitalist in the wings,” said Norman. “We are a bootstrap operation.”
Still, Norman is determined. He began developing the idea for his additive back in 1994 and tinkered with a formula. His goal was to produce an additive that would change the way gas and diesel fuel burns in a piston engine to maximize mileage and decrease emissions.
Using a small workbench in his home, he finally settled on the right mix and began some limited testing. In 2000, he commissioned a test with an EPA-certified laboratory in New Jersey. The test, performed on a randomly selected rental car, showed promise, Norman said: 5.4 percent reduction in carbon monoxide; 2.26 reduction in carbon dioxide; 31 percent reduction in nitrous oxides; and a 2.31 increase in miles per gallon.
Norman registered the additive with the EPA, a process that assures its safety for consumers. Then he sought a patent and began limited manufacturing of Diesel/Gas Go! Now he and his wife, Arlene, are trying to market the product while simultaneously seeking more verification of its performance.
“What we need are customers,” said Norman. “The perception is we’re not quite a real business yet, but we’re past the idea and development stage.”
More tests are under way at the Manufacturing Applications Center product testing lab at the University of Southern Maine. The early indications are again promising.
According to a USM report, in tests performed in May of this year, five different vehicles showed mileage increases, from a low of 5 percent (an eight-cylinder Jeep) to a high of 13.4 percent (an eight-cylinder, 14-passenger van) with an average increase of 9.4 percent. The next phase of USM testing involves a fleet of trucks.
That data will be crucial since Norman hopes to sell Diesel/Gas Go! to the largest consumers of diesel fuel: commercial truckers. He reasons a 10 percent increase in gas mileage for a trucker driving 120,000 miles translates to fuel savings of $2,351 a year after you deduct the cost of Diesel/Gas Go! One ounce of additive is added to every 10 gallons of gas.
Norman is charging $19.95 for 16 ounces; $99.95 for a gallon and $3,999.95 for a 55-gallon drum.
“When we hear the truck data, the truckers will hear from me,” said Norman.
He also hopes the test results will help him land a grant to do further research on Diesel/Gas Go! or attract investors to help market and distribute it. He’s already made a few changes to better market the additive in Maine.
He and Arlene hired a branding consultant when they lived in New Jersey. As marketing and management consultants themselves – a business they’ve maintained since moving out of the urban rat race to Maine 18 months ago – they know the value of a product’s name.
The consultant suggested naming the additive “BorGASm” since they were targeting male truck drivers in the 16- to 36-year-old age group. But the acronym for “better operation, response and gas mileage” didn’t fly here in Maine.
“People just gasped,” said Arlene. So they changed it to Diesel/Gas Go!
Right now Norman is selling it via his Web site at www.futurefueltechnologies.com and offering free samples from his home. A company in New Jersey manufactures the additive now, but Norman has a Lisbon Falls facility ready to make the next batch.
Robbie Robbins is waiting for Diesel/Gas Go! to hit the shelves locally. As Norman’s insurance agent, Robbins became interested in the additive and started using it last year in his pickup truck.
“It did increase my gas mileage quite a bit,” said Robbins, who logged a lot of miles between his offices in South Portland and Lewiston. He estimated he saw an increase of 20 percent in the few months he used it and his truck had more pep. But he’s not using it now.
“I can’t just pick it up when I’m right there filling my tank, so it’s a matter of convenience,” he said. And since he closed his South Portland office in June, he’s not traveling near as much.
But he’d use it again if it were easier to get. And that’s what keeps Norman going.
“I’m not waiting for the (investment) money,” he said. “I’m selling it now.”
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