What Ethanol Does And Doesn't Do (PDF)

[MEXICOWANDERER]

https://www.google.com.mx/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=2&ved=0ahUKEwiw9dO914XPAhUGPj4KHeFl...

A lot of data here. Be wary of alcohol levels as 85% ethanol 15% ultra low sulfur gasoline is used in many baselines and comparisons.

[NinerBikes]

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.

[PaulJ2]

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.

[landyacht318]

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 🙂

[MEXICOWANDERER]

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.

[westend]

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.

[MEXICOWANDERER]

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..."

[westend]

In MN, E10 is mandated. You can find non-oxygenated premium around lake country, the boats need it. I can buy E85 at a dozen stations within 10 miles of my house. Not every station carries it but the big independents sell it (Holiday station/store).

[Denny___Jami]

westend wrote:

Denny & Jami wrote:
The study looks at E85 not E10 that's the norm, I've traveled all over the country and I can count on one hand how many stations even had E85, not sure who paid for the study but it was a waste of money.

Denny

We have a lot of E85 up here, in MN. My buddy Roger used to fill his 2001 Impala with 1/2 tank of regular and 1/2 tank of E85. He said mileage dipped by 2 MPG and I believe him as I later owned this same car and running regular only (E10), I matched his numbers.

We were just in MN ad I never seen any E85 but I wasn't looking for it. I've used E10 and reg fuel in my V10 and now my 6.2 and I can tell no difference in mileage.

Denny

[westend]

Denny & Jami wrote:
The study looks at E85 not E10 that's the norm, I've traveled all over the country and I can count on one hand how many stations even had E85, not sure who paid for the study but it was a waste of money.

Denny

We have a lot of E85 up here, in MN. My buddy Roger used to fill his 2001 Impala with 1/2 tank of regular and 1/2 tank of E85. He said mileage dipped by 2 MPG and I believe him as I later owned this same car and running regular only (E10), I matched his numbers.

[westend]

Yes we're between a rock and a hard place since big oil can't sell that "dependent on foreign oil" mantra anymore and the corn squeezers are getting taken to task for the amount of energy and water consumed to produce ethanol. We may have to go back to regular gas oil gasoline and enjoy the fruits of our labor, getting average MPG up into the stratosphere. The ones left holding the bag are the tax collectors.

FWIW, Henry Ford said, when he developed the Model B engine, "the engine can be powered off the alcohol from one acre of potatoes and cultivate/harvest 100 acres".

A couple of years ago they discovered one of Benz's earliest cars, an electric battery powered model.

Things seem to be going in a circle, lol.

[Denny___Jami]

The study looks at E85 not E10 that's the norm, I've traveled all over the country and I can count on one hand how many stations even had E85, not sure who paid for the study but it was a waste of money.

Denny

[cj7365]

Buy real gasThis is the solution

[noplace2]

What Ethanol Does And Doesn't Do

I find that it generally improves my mood.

[MEXICOWANDERER]

Cal Worthington, and his dog Spot...time.

Emissions weight per mile and emission of toxics like benzene have been conviently been omitted. I suspected something was amiss when suddenly the official "We're running out of crude oil!" Was replaced by "Ethanol is vital to sustain life on earth!". Just about the same time as Archer Daniels Midland opened up their DC office a stone's throw from the US Capitol. ADM the Corn Lobby. I winced at the term when I first heard it but "Sheeple" seems to describe public interest. You folks up there keep up that corn likker sipping while the USA sends pure gasoline to Mexico.

[road-runner]

As a high-level summary the info shows that with the E85 emissions are a bit less than with gasoline, and fuel economy is worse. What cranks me is that I don't see that they take into account the pollution caused by transporting the extra fuel due to the lower MPG, or the added pollution caused by drivers having to stop for fuel more often. If they were honest about it, they'd factor in things like the pollution due to the energy used to pump the additional fuel.