Is this true? E85 Ethanol-blend fuel has horrible gas mileage

[kiper]

Taken from http://www.chris-longhurst.com/carbi...ine_bible.html



E85 Ethanol - the magic bullet?

With the spiralling cost of fuel prices brought on by George Bush's "War On Terror", people are looking at everything to get cheaper fuel, and one of the silver bullets seems to be E85 Ethanol-blend gasoline. I say 'seems to be' because once you do some research, which is what you're doing right here by reading this, you'll learn it's not quite the magic solution everyone would have you believe.

E85 ethanolE85 is a blend of 15% regular unleaded petrol with 85% ethanol. It's designed for so-called Flexible Fuel vehicles, and as such has been classified by the US Department of Energy as an alternative fuel. The facts on E85 are a little hard to come by, so I've put as many as I can right here so that you, dear reader, can try to cut to the chase.

So what is a flexible fuel vehicle (FFV)? Well, it's a vehicle with an engine and emissions system designed to be able to run on a blend of unleaded petrol and ethanol up to a maximum of 85% ethanol. If E85 isn't available, you can run them on just plain old petrol though. If you read all the hoopla surrounding E85, you'll see this statement crop up time and time again: "It is a renewable source of energy and reduces the crude oil imports needed to fuel America’s transportation system. Ethanol is a clean, environmentally friendly fuel.". Weeeeelllllll yes. But more importantly, no. It's true that it is partly based on a renewable source of energy - ethanol is basically distilled corn oil (or wheat, barley, or potatoes. Brazil, the world's largest ethanol producer, makes the fuel from sugarcane), and yes, it's a cleaner and slightly more environmentally friendly fuel. There's a 'but' to go with all this, and it's a big 'but' - of Jennifer Lopez proportions. Here it is. In bold because it's the important part of this paragraph. E85 Ethanol-blend fuel has horrible gas mileage.

What does this mean to you? Well it means you'll need a lot more of it for a start. Sure it may be cheaper than regular petrol, but there's a reason - it's a terrible way to run a vehicle. Even the governments own figures back that statement up. Check out one of their lists of flexible-fueled vehicles for yourself. On average, putting E85 in a flexible fuel vehicle will return a whopping 25% worse gas mileage. E85 doesn't burn as efficiently as regular petrol because it contains less energy per volume - 75,760btu per gallon as oppose to 115,400btu per gallon for plain old petrol. This accounts for the 30% increase in the amount of fuel required in the fuel-air mix during combustion, and the corresponding drop in gas mileage. All this comes with an average drop of only 10% in greenhouse gas emissions. If you go by historical precedent, and assume we all move to FFV's, the income from regular petrol will drop so the oil companies will simply increase the cost of E85. At that point, you're getting terrible gas mileage but paying what you used to for just plain vanilla unleaded petrol. Remember - nothing is free.
But what about Brazil?

For a while now, Brazil (the country, not the Terry Gilliam film) has managed to be largely independent of the world's fluctuating oil prices. By law, all Brazillian petrol must be at least 25% ethanol - E25 - created from sugar-cane-fed biorefineries. By 2007, almost all cars available in Brazil ought to be able to run on 100% ethanol. (It's worth noting that Ethanol-only cars were sold in Brazil in significant numbers between 1980 and 1995). No longer dictated-to by Big Oil, the price of their E100 is relatively low and thus it offsets the lower gas-mileage quite nicely. One argument put forth in America is that using E85 will reduce the reliance on foreign imports - specifically oil. But you need to look at the whole picture. E85 comes from corn, currently a crop used to feed people. Assuming that America has enough spare capacity to farm corn for E85 for the current demand, what happens when more people start using it? You can't increase farmland, or drop production of corn for food, so the next alternative is importing it. At which point, even using E85, you become dependent on foreign imports again. Brazil doesn't have this problem because their system is in balance and so they supply themselves with enough surplus to export their product. Most likely to America.



Clean exhaust - it depends on your definition of the word "clean".

Something that isn't widely publicised is the difference in emissions between corn-based ethanol, as used in America, and sugar-based ethanol, as used in Brazil. We're all told that ethanol blend fuels produce cleaner exhaust and with sugar-based ethanol, that's absolutely true. Even with corn-based ethanol, the gasses measured at an emissions check are lower, which still looks good. But there are two things a corn-based ethanol E85 vehicle will produce through the exhaust that might surprise you. First, for the same size of engine and weight of vehicle, a corn-based E85 engine dumps nearly double the CO2 into the atmosphere. And second, the exhaust gas contains acetaldehyde (CH3CHO) and lots of it. Acetaldehyde is a known carcinogen and suspected neurotoxin, and when exposed to its vapors, you or I would likely develop irritation of the eyes, skin and the respiratory tract. In fact, Acetaldehyde is ranked as one of the most hazardous compounds (worst 10%) to ecosystems and human health. It's obvious why this isn't widely publicised, but then you might ask the question "why don't we see this in the emissions test?". Simple. The emissions test doesn't look for it. You can't detect and measure something you're not looking for.

But wait - it gets better. [b]The corn-based ethanol production process consumes more fossil fuel energy than ethanol's actual calorific value.[b] In other words, to produce a gallon of ethanol to be used in E85, it takes more fossil fuel energy than you could simply get by putting a gallon of refined non-blend petrol in your car. And as you know, regular petrol also gives better economy.




Nice read.. Hanggan jan pa lang nabasa ko.

[k2tingx]

i read the same note in about.com regarding E85... one of the cons is its less gas mileage.. but they are backing this up considering its advantages.. less-dependency on foreign oil (subjective), eco-friendly (comapared to methane), and the economic growth brought by the corn industry... i hope this is true...

[userfriendly]

Just remember don't use fuel with more than 10% ethanol if your car is not flex fuel. Even E10 is not recommended if you car has a carb.

[OTEP]

Ethanol packs less energy per liter than gasoline. So do expect worse fuel mileage.

[masterjoe619]

Kaya sa Petron na ang kayo magpagaso ng Unleaded.

[tool_46n2]

Ako biktima din ako netong lecheng Shell E10 na yan hehe...
I filled up 15liters of E10 on my 01' Corolla LE, (1.3 carb), nung un una akala ko sulet kasi mas mura ng 20centavos. Parang ok naman un 1st na fill ko pero nung 2nd na nag-pagas ako tas E10 ulet, feel ko tlga un loss of power... so in the long run, ndi ka din makakatipid since you have give higher RPM for that needed power. I was averaging around 8-10 on regular unleaded & on the E10 naging 6 km/l lang...

I remember last year lang ata un Shell along UN ave, there was a time na linabas un E10 and no choice ka if hanap mo regular unleaded since E10 lang meron cla, next in line na un premium unleaded. Buti nalang binalik nila un regular unleaded some time after.

[A121]

Ako biktima din ako netong lecheng Shell E10 na yan hehe...
I filled up 15liters of E10 on my 01' Corolla LE, (1.3 carb), nung un una akala ko sulet kasi mas mura ng 20centavos. Parang ok naman un 1st na fill ko pero nung 2nd na nag-pagas ako tas E10 ulet, feel ko tlga un loss of power... so in the long run, ndi ka din makakatipid since you have give higher RPM for that needed power. I was averaging around 8-10 on regular unleaded & on the E10 naging 6 km/l lang...

I remember last year lang ata un Shell along UN ave, there was a time na linabas un E10 and no choice ka if hanap mo regular unleaded since E10 lang meron cla, next in line na un premium unleaded. Buti nalang binalik nila un regular unleaded some time after.

you should've read the manual first. baka sa tono rin ng makina

[sirmykel]

will try e10 kapag naisip ko hehehe.
usually premium gamit ganda kasi sunog ng makina ko.