Almost every station I go to has ethanol (up to 10%) added to gas. For a long time I had the option in my area to buy non ethanol gas but now it’s harder to find.
If a gallon of ethanol gets less mileage per volume than gasoline, then how is it better for the environment if I have to fill that much sooner on gas because the ethanol component lowers my tank range?
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Ethanol essentially ruins gas, as it adds a hydrophilic substance to gasoline that absorbs moisture from the air. This makes the shelf life/storage of ethanol gas half the length of gas without.
It also ruins older cars (pre-90s) as it can dry out/destroy seals and hoses that were not designed for ethanol gas. Most lawn equipment is not designed to run it, and many manuals suggest not using ethanol gas in small engines. It also causes gas to become gummy, which clogs up carburetors. Boats also should not be run on ethanol gas, and most marinas etc sell ethanol free for this reason. It is worse than ethanol free gas in pretty much every way.
At the end of the day, the real reason we have ethanol free gas is to use up the corn/”biofuel” that was subsidized by the government.
Ethanol improves the performance of gasoline.
Pure gasoline, if you compress it quickly, will combust. This can be a problem if it combust too quickly in your engine. If the gasoline combusts before the spark plug sets it off (it combusts due to the compression of the piston), then that messed with the whole timing of the engine and causes engine knock, which is bad for both the engine and your mileage.
The first solution we came up with was to add ethanol, but at the time, it was too expensive. The next solution was a chemical called tetraethyl lead. This prevented the combustion from just compression and was believed to be sage. Over time, so much lead was in the atmosphere that it was having a serious impact on life throughout the world, and we traced it back to leaded gasoline. By then, ethanol was cheaper, so we switched to that, and we now call it “unleaded gasoline.”
Higher octane ratings have less or no ethanol because only low octane gasoline has that early combustion problem.
Ethanol essentially ruins gas, as it adds a hydrophilic substance to gasoline that absorbs moisture from the air. This makes the shelf life/storage of ethanol gas half the length of gas without.
It also ruins older cars (pre-90s) as it can dry out/destroy seals and hoses that were not designed for ethanol gas. Most lawn equipment is not designed to run it, and many manuals suggest not using ethanol gas in small engines. It also causes gas to become gummy, which clogs up carburetors. Boats also should not be run on ethanol gas, and most marinas etc sell ethanol free for this reason. It is worse than ethanol free gas in pretty much every way.
At the end of the day, the real reason we have ethanol free gas is to use up the corn/”biofuel” that was subsidized by the government.
Theres benefits to ethanol besides mpg. Its an excellent octane boosters and makes engines run cooler, which creates more power.
Theres benefits to ethanol besides mpg. Its an excellent octane boosters and makes engines run cooler, which creates more power.
Ethanol improves the performance of gasoline.
Pure gasoline, if you compress it quickly, will combust. This can be a problem if it combust too quickly in your engine. If the gasoline combusts before the spark plug sets it off (it combusts due to the compression of the piston), then that messed with the whole timing of the engine and causes engine knock, which is bad for both the engine and your mileage.
The first solution we came up with was to add ethanol, but at the time, it was too expensive. The next solution was a chemical called tetraethyl lead. This prevented the combustion from just compression and was believed to be sage. Over time, so much lead was in the atmosphere that it was having a serious impact on life throughout the world, and we traced it back to leaded gasoline. By then, ethanol was cheaper, so we switched to that, and we now call it “unleaded gasoline.”
Higher octane ratings have less or no ethanol because only low octane gasoline has that early combustion problem.
Theres benefits to ethanol besides mpg. Its an excellent octane boosters and makes engines run cooler, which creates more power.
Adding some ethanol may be a benefit to air quality in dense urban areas –especially those with seasonal temperature inversions which trap smog in the winter– by reducing emission of fine particulate matter and ozone precursors (aldehydes).
Here in Albuquerque and in Denver it seems to work: we don’t have the big brown clouds in the winter that we used to have before the adoption of “oxygenated” fuels.
However, this is the subject of intense scientific debate. You can find papers supporting just about any position you’d like to adopt in debate.
Assumptions made by researchers seem to vary widely. Many of the studies focus on E85 rather than the more common 10% ethanol used in virtually all gasoline in the US during certain times of the year.
Reader beware.
Adding some ethanol may be a benefit to air quality in dense urban areas –especially those with seasonal temperature inversions which trap smog in the winter– by reducing emission of fine particulate matter and ozone precursors (aldehydes).
Here in Albuquerque and in Denver it seems to work: we don’t have the big brown clouds in the winter that we used to have before the adoption of “oxygenated” fuels.
However, this is the subject of intense scientific debate. You can find papers supporting just about any position you’d like to adopt in debate.
Assumptions made by researchers seem to vary widely. Many of the studies focus on E85 rather than the more common 10% ethanol used in virtually all gasoline in the US during certain times of the year.
Reader beware.
Adding some ethanol may be a benefit to air quality in dense urban areas –especially those with seasonal temperature inversions which trap smog in the winter– by reducing emission of fine particulate matter and ozone precursors (aldehydes).
Here in Albuquerque and in Denver it seems to work: we don’t have the big brown clouds in the winter that we used to have before the adoption of “oxygenated” fuels.
However, this is the subject of intense scientific debate. You can find papers supporting just about any position you’d like to adopt in debate.
Assumptions made by researchers seem to vary widely. Many of the studies focus on E85 rather than the more common 10% ethanol used in virtually all gasoline in the US during certain times of the year.
Reader beware.
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