What Ethanol Does And Doesn't Do (PDF)

Ice used to cover most of Canada and the northern US. It should be put back.

Alcohol burns cleaner than gas. I don't think there's an argument there. If, as a gasoline mfg, I can boost octane by buying and blending cheap alcohol, I'm a winner.

One of the biggest crimes was indoctrinating the US public to believe we were dependent on foreign oil. Every time a bullet whizzed in the Mideast, US oil companies were at the ready to jack prices.
The truth is, nearly all oil produced in Alaska is going to Asia. Those Asian nations trade US Big oil in vouchers for Mideast crude. When accounting for where our oil comes from, it appears that a lot of it is from the Mideast when, in fact, US Big Oil is trading for that oil from US stock.
Now that the Bakken can pump as much as the Mideast, the game changes. The Bakken oil is easier to refine than WTI for fuel stock and that is where the big money is. Not only is it more profitable to make fuel but our aging refineries are built for that purpose.

One night, in Puerto Rico, a VP of Union Carbide told me that instead of us taking their aromatics back up to Louisiana to be refined into thinners and such, they'd rather we take it 250 miles out and dump it. That was a bit counter to how the other nations in the Caribbean wanted petroleum to be handled, lol.
As consumers, we see little of how oil is processed and the economics of it. As long as there is gas or diesel at the pump, we are comfortable.

Lots of good info, thanks for sharing...

But but but, isn't ethanol supposed to reduce tailpipe emissions?

And not just reduce dependence on foriegn oil?

Heck I can't tell if I am being sarcastic or not.

Mex, what have you done to me?

Where is that seratonin button.

Opps forgot, I use a bourns 10 turn potentiometer for better precision.

Ahhhhhhhh there we go.

1987 Toyota Xtra Cab SR5 4x4 with EFI. 24.2 MPG lifetime average on true gas. 21.8 MPG when E10 arrived everywhere. I know my numbers are correct and fact, as I logged every single fillup, gallons bought, miles traveled, topped off and brimmed to the neck, each and every fillup. E10 sucked... nothing but filler waste, doing nothing but taking away 10% of your MPG's. I hated the stuff, made my fillups more frequent and more expensive.

Ethanol is fluff in your fuel tank, a large percentage of alcohol is, by weight, oxygen. Why would you want to carry around oxygen, when you can get it free for ignition from the air intake? Therein lies the fallacy. Splitting hydrocarbons and taking free oxygen from the air makes energy. Providing oxygen in the fuel is just plain stupid, from a chemical reaction point of view. It adds expense, while not providing energy to propel you forward. Dumb, really, really dumb.

MEXICOWANDERER wrote:
Mexico Shell Oil gasoline 24.6 mpg

USA Shell Oil gasohol 22.1 mpg.

Same route. No wind. Same weight. Seven or eight trials. I may believe in an occasional coincidence. But like Jim Varney, used to say...

"Now Vern..."

2001 Prius 52 mpg same route, twice daily, 2 years. After Ethanol same route, same time trice daily, 45-46 mpg.

MEXICOWANDERER wrote:

The pushbutton instant gratification citizenry of the USA cannot be bothered to try and understand...... ( insert any word here)

They are too concerned with taking selfies and oneupmanship.

In general of course :)

Water in the fuel is a perpetual problem down here as you can imagine. I much prefer to drain off sumped water than try and run it through a fuel injection system.

It's the con-artistry of ethanol that bugs me. Everthing is shrouded in gimmickry. The amount of energy needed to distill a gallon of ethanol can be a reflux but growing corn takes a lot of fertilizer and producing fertilizer requires an enormous amount of.....guess what....oil.

Fertlizer and pesticides contaminate ground water and good old Monsanto is genetically engineering corn. You ever raise corn? The least pollen contamination with a doninant strain poisons adjacent fields. The bozos are in far over their head. Small gardens are one thing. Millions of gallons worth of ethanol daily quite another. And it's all being done at your expense people are making empires worth of wealth running this con game. Wanna hear screeching from Washington? Put constitutional mandates in place controlling ultra-sweet fracked oil. This oil is not priced like West Texas Intermediate...it's three card monte going to China - again at your expense. Venezuelan Lagomar crude used to be the most coveted light crude in the western hemisphere. Not any more. Fracked crude yields much higher percentages of lighter ends making it INCREDIBLY CHEAPER TO REFINE. No country can match the USA in econical terms of sour oil processing.

The pushbutton instant gratification citizenry of the USA cannot be bothered to try and understand this fleecing.

They want Weather Porn animation without regard to the fact that orchids have flourished in Yukon followed by glaciers halfway down California. God forbid.

Mex, I'd say that's about right on for the difference between alcohol added and straight gas. Assuming the vehicle is 4K lbs or less.

Back in the 70's we took a load of gas oil and a couple of tanks of MTBE to a refinery down in Santo Domingo. The old boy at the refinery in Texas told me how they used to blend their own gas for the weekends, running their hot rods. The MTBE really boosted the octane but use a little too much and it was time for an engine rebuild.

One byproduct of the mandated E10 is that no one worries about water in their tank anymore. Used to be, most of the stations had a display of Heet deicer right at the register. Not needed with E10.

Mexico Shell Oil gasoline 24.6 mpg

USA Shell Oil gasohol 22.1 mpg.

Same route. No wind. Same weight. Seven or eight trials. I may believe in an occasional coincidence. But like Jim Varney, used to say...

"Now Vern..."