Is ethanol really worse than gasoline?
Ethanol Worse Than Gasoline. Feb 8 (IPS) – Biofuels are making climate change worse, not better, according to two new studies which found that total greenhouse gas emissions from biofuels are far higher than those from burning gasoline because biofuel production is pushing up food prices and resulting in deforestation and loss of grasslands.
What does ethanol do to gasoline?
Gasoline with ethanol decreases the life of the engine and its parts. The alcohol is not good for seals and causes a quicker break-down. Having a cleaning agent like this constantly in a small engine that was not engineered for this fuel mixture simply ages it at a faster rate.
Can ethanol be used instead of gasoline?
With a perfectly running system, you can expect to get up to 27% more mileage from gasoline than you can from ethanol. Yes, you may spend less on ethanol while at the pump, but you might also be filling up more often. In the long run, you may actually save money using traditional gasoline instead.
What are the negative effects of ethanol?
- Steatosis, or fatty liver
- Alcoholic hepatitis
- Fibrosis
- Cirrhosis
See more
Is ethanol in gasoline a good thing?
Fuel Economy and Performance If they were optimized to run on higher ethanol blends, fuel economy would likely increase as a result of increased engine efficiency. Ethanol also has a higher octane number than gasoline, which provides increased power and performance.
When did they start adding ethanol to gasoline?
Ethanol is added to gasoline In 2005, the U.S. Congress enacted a Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) that set minimum requirements for the use of renewable fuels, including ethanol, in motor fuels. In 2007, the RFS targets were set to rise steadily to 36 billion gallons by 2022.
Is ethanol-free gas better for your engine?
Ethanol-free gas offers better mileage than fuel with an ethanol mix. Even if mileage efficiency is reduced by 3%, ethanol-free gas is better for the engine. There have been reports of ethanol mixed gas leading to rusting engine parts. Ethanol, by nature, attracts water and can cause damage.
Will ethanol free gas hurt my car?
Using non-ethanol gas in your car won't harm the vehicle's engine. You can mix ethanol-free gas with ethanol-blended varieties. However, using an ethanol blend may cause damage to your outdoor power equipment.
Can ethanol damage your engine?
Water-ethanol solutions can damage fuel systems and engines, and the system will need to get flushed to prevent further damage. Once phase separation has occurred, no additive can reverse it, and the fuel tank will require draining.
Which gas brand has least ethanol?
According to Dan McTeague, a noted petroleum analyst, Shell and Esso 91 are both ethanol free.
What gas station has the best quality gas?
Chevron. Of America's largest nationwide chains, Chevron scores the highest points in overall customer satisfaction. Its reach spans over 7,800 stores, and while some gas stations offer convenient food marts, one location in North Hollywood goes above and beyond gasoline.
Do cars really need premium gas?
Premium gas — that is, gas with an octane rating of 91 or more — is required for some high performance and luxury vehicles. Gasoline with a high octane rating is more difficult to ignite, which helps prevent pre-ignition and knocking in high performance engines.
What was in gas before ethanol?
Before ethanol was blended with gasoline, the United States used a fuel additive called MTBE to oxygenate the fuel, which improves combustion efficiency and reduces air emissions.
Does 87 octane gas have ethanol?
This is a blend of gasoline that blends gas with 15 percent ethanol. 87-octane can have no more than 10 percent ethanol. The difference between 87 and 88 is an additional 5% ethanol.
When was lead removed from gasoline?
By 1975, unleaded gasoline was universally available. Effective January 1, 1996, leaded gasoline was banned by the Clean Air Act for use in new vehicles other than aircraft, racing cars, farm equipment, and marine engines.
Did early cars run on alcohol?
In 1860, German inventor Nicolaus Otto uses ethyl alcohol as a fuel in an early internal combustion engine. In 1862 and 1864, a tax on alcohol was passed in the U.S. to pay for the Civil War, increasing the price of ethanol to over $2.00 per gallon.
Why is ethanol in our gas?
Fuel ethanol is used to enhance the octane rating of gasoline. To put that simply, higher octane gas resists detonation, so it burns rather than exploding. But raising the octane level of gasoline is expensive; that’s why premium fuel costs more than regular. Adding ethanol reduces the tendency of low-grade gasoline to detonate, enabling our national fleet to run on crappier gas.
How much ethanol is in gasoline?
Today, 97 percent of gasoline sold in America has ethanol in it. The exact amount of ethanol in the mix varies from state to state, however, and in some states, you can find ethanol-free premium gas if you look for it. But in general, you can expect that gasoline sold in the United States has around 10 percent ethanol in it.
What is E85 fuel?
In addition to use as a gasoline additive, fuel ethanol forms the bulk of E85, also known as flex-fuel. E85 is an alternative fuel supported by many automakers on a wide range of cars. E85, as the name suggests, is 85 percent ethanol and 15 percent petroleum and other products. Most E85-capable vehicles can also run on standard petroleum fuel.
Why do you need a vapor seal on a fuel pump?
Ethanol also wants to evaporate more than gasoline, and fuel evaporation is a major source of air pollution, so you need those spring-loaded vapor seals on fuel pumps and similar gear at the refining and distribution centers to keep ethanol in the fuel.
Why did the Model T run on moonshine?
He did this because gasoline was not commonly available everywhere in 1908, and farmers could produce ethanol very cheaply and use it to fuel their vehicles – essentially, you could run your Model T on moonshine. Ethanol also made a comeback as fuel during WWII when gasoline was strictly rationed.
Where is ethanol exported?
Most exported ethanol goes to Brazil, Canada, China, India, and South Korea.
What are some ways to produce ethanol?
Mostly, this revolves around using waste paper, sawdust, and fast-growing grasses. These are all better alternatives than the water and fertilizer-intensive corn crop.
Why is ethanol used in mixers?
This chemical compound was chosen due to its low price and because it helped mixers generate higher octane ratings. All seemed well until California discovered in 1995 that MTBE was showing up in high concentrations in its drinking water, which was traced back to spilled gasoline and leaky underground containers. Ethanol was widely seen as a safer replacement for MTBE and its use was pushed by the agricultural industry here in the States.
What is the oxygen content of gasoline?
In the early 1990s, the United States government issued a series of amendments to the Clean Air Act that included the requirement to use oxygenated gasoline (minimum oxygen content of 2.0-percent by weight for reformulated gasoline in ozone non-attainment areas...for what it's worth) to help the fuel burn more completely in combustion. One of the favored oxygenates was methyl tert-butyl ether, or MTBE.
What is E85 fuel?
You've probably noticed that many vehicles are labeled with a Flex Fuel badge from the manufacturer, indicating that the car or truck is capable of running safely on E85 – a blend of 85-percent ethanol and 15-percent gasoline. For this article, we're not talking about E85 or other mixtures with high concentrations of the alcohol fuel.
Can ethanol damage a car?
Even older cars (from the mid-1980s or so) are unlikely to be damaged by low concentrations of ethanol in gasoline, though it's possible a carburetor may need to be re-jetted to run on highly oxygenated fuels. Classic cars and trucks may need some replacement of older rubber lines and fittings that could potentially be damaged by high concentrations of alcohol in gasoline.
Is regular gasoline ethanol?
So, now that we know why regular gasoline probably has at least some ethanol in it, the next logical question is do you need to be worried about it? The answer is a qualified no. Today's cars and trucks are all fully capable of running on E10, a blend of 10-percent ethanol and 90-percent gasoline. Sophisticated computer systems and sensors constantly monitor the engine and the exhaust to be sure that everything (i.e., the air-fuel mixture) is kept at its optimum level.
Does ethanol help the air?
Since ethanol is used to oxygenate the gasoline mixture, which in turn allows the fuel to burn more completely and therefore produce cleaner emissions, its use in fuel has obvious benefits for air quality. Of course, the full issue is a bit more complicated than that.
How much ethanol is in gasoline?
Today, roughly 97% of all gasoline that is sold in the U.S. contains ethanol. There are three main types of ethanol gas to choose from E85, which contains 85% ethanol; E10, which contains 10% ethanol; and E15, which you have probably guessed by now, contains 15% ethanol.
What is ethanol made of?
Ethanol is usually made from fermented corn and is found in most alcoholic beverages. The type of ethanol that is put into gasoline is a little bit different from regular alcohol ethanol. In order to make the ethanol suitable for vehicles, it goes into a separate refinery where other chemicals are added to it.
What is the most common type of ethanol used in gasoline?
However, because the United States is one of largest producers of corn, ethanol made from fermented corn is the most common type of ethanol that is used in gasoline in the U.S. Because it is made from natural resources, it does burn slightly cleaner and emits fewer pollutants than regular gas alone.
Why do you need to replace rubber lines on an engine?
Anything older than that, and you may want to replace some of the old rubber lines on the engine before you put a more oxygenated gas into it. Ethanol gas has many benefits. One of the benefits is that it can help the environment by emitting less carbon dioxide into the air.
What is the chemical compound that makes gasoline burn better?
The first solution that many companies had come up with was to use a chemical compound called methyl tert-butyl ether (MTBE). That particular compound was later discovered to be pretty harmful in humans.
Is ethanol used in cars?
Using ethanol to help power vehicles was not a foreign concept back then. In fact, Henry Ford had even predicted that one day, vehicles would run purely on ethanol when he had said: “The fuel of the future is going to come from fruit like the sumac out by the road, or from apples, weeds, sawdust – almost anything. There is fuel in every bit of vegetable matter that can be fermented. There’s enough alcohol in one year’s yield of an acre of potatoes to drive the machinery necessary to cultivate the fields for a hundred years.”
Can you use E10 gas in a car?
Nowadays, many car manufacturers are produc ing cars that can safe ly consume ethanol or regular gas. These cars are called flex-fuel cars. According to AutoBlog, as long as your car was made later than 1980, it should be able to handle at least an E10 gas. Anything older than that, and you may want to replace some of the old rubber lines on the engine before you put a more oxygenated gas into it.
How does ethanol reduce petroleum consumption?
Ethanol has been shown to need more petroleum to produce it than its low BTU addition to gasoline saves. The farm machinery necessary to grow and harvest corn for ethanol production requires vats quantities of petroleum. The fertilizer and herbicides needed for corn production are petroleum based. The trucks needed to transport the corn to the ethanol production facilities and the ethanol from these plants to the refinery consume petroleum. And the processing factories consume vast amounts of petroleum. Ethanol production increases rather than decreases petroleum consumption.
Why was ethanol added to fuel?
So why was ethanol added to fuel in the first place? That was a purely political decision to please the big campaign donors and agricultural giants Archer Daniels Midland and Cargill and gain votes in corn growing states such as Iowa. There was no scientific support or justification for the decision. The ethanol mandate raised the price of corn, increased the profits of Archer Daniels Midland and Cargill, increased the price of pork and and beef, and distorted agricultural production by removing land from other agricultural production so that it could be devoted to government subsidized corn production. It effectively created an international food shortage by giving farmers a government subsidized incentive to produce corn rather than other crops. Anyone who needed gasoline was forced by government regulation to also buy corn based ethanol that he did not need or want but that benefited big campaign donors and farmers in a state that voted early in the primaries.
How much less gas mileage from 10% ethanol?
So you will get a few percent (6.6%) less miles per gallon from 10% ethanol fuel than 100% gasoline.
What does ethanol mandates do?
What the ethanol mandates in fact do is take a labor and land and capital intensive product, food for human consumption, and turn it into a low grade polluting fuel. This makes no economic or scientific sense. But it does transfer money from car owners to a protected class of political campaign donors, namely the agri-giants Archer Daniels Midland and Cargill and one group of politically captured farmers. And those in turn will continue to give large campaign donations and votes to the politicians who transferred other people’s wealth to them. It is a simple matter of giving and taking bribes.
Does ethanol affect gas mileage?
Ethanol does NOT in any way improve the performance of gasoline. Ethanol in gasoline decreases a car’s miles per gallon, increases tail pipe pollution, and in those cars or engines designed and built prior to ethanol mandates, the presence of ethanol in the gasoline can damage seals and gaskets in the fuel system. In motorcycles and small engines with carburetors any amount of ethanol can damage the carburetors through a corrosion process that damages and clogs the carburetors jets with a hard white calcium-like deposit. (I have had a lot of personal experience rebuilding carburetors that were damaged by ethanol.) Ethanol has a much lower BTU content than gasoline and effectively serves as a dilutant. It is a cheap way to marginally boost octane ratings, but its negative effects overwhelmingly reduce this small cost savings by imposing additional costs that must be born by the taxpayer, automobile owner, refiner, and anyone who buys and consumes groceries.
Does ethanol improve gasoline?
Ethanol does NOT in any way improve the performance of gasoline. Ethanol in gasoline decreases a car’s miles per gallon, increases tail pipe pollution, and in those cars or engines designed and built prio
Is ethanol a good octane booster?
Ethanol is also a pretty good octane-booster additive, and way better than lead for the environment.
