Bring On the Blender Pumps!
Yesterday I rolled up to the pump at the co-op in Hendricks, Minnesota and examined my options. Let's see- gasoline with 10% ethanol for $3.49 a gallon, E20 (20% ethanol) for $3.29, and E30 for $3.19 a gallon... Easy choice. I filled up the 2007 BMW F800 with E30 knowing it's engine with it's 12 to 1 compression would love this 93 octane "racing fuel". Twasn't the first time I've run the bike on E20 and E30, but now that the bike's out of warranty I can come out of the closet and even brag about how well E20 and E30 fuels work.
I've been running these higher than 10% ethanol blends for a couple years now on several vehicles with no problems and equal or better mileage and performance than they delivered even on 100% gasoline. My Ford Ranger gives the same mileage on E10, E20, or E30 as it did on 100% gasoline. Same for my 2000 Chrysler minivan. I've even run the stronger blends in my three BMW "airhead" motorcycles- the 1983 R80ST was jetted rich from the factory and is happier on E20 or E30 than it is on 100% gasoline. The '84 R65LS and '92 R100GS are jetted leaner, so I don't feed them anything stronger than E20. I've got a 2001 Buell Cyclone too, and despite some very lean jetting it happily runs on E20, although it takes longer to warm up when it's cold out. I could rejet these bikes for E30, but their old carbeurators don't have the ability to adjust for different fuels like the newer fuel injected vehicles can, so I have to leave them stock for now so they can run on 100% gasoline where ethanol blend ain't available.
But doesn't ethanol have 30% less energy than gas? Well, if you just burn it and measure the heat given off that's true. But internal combustion engines are different- such simple rules don't always apply. The actual efficiency of spark ignition engines is largely determined by compression ratio, which is the degree by which the fuel is compressed before it's burned. Now they could build engines with incredible compression rations like 20:1, but at such high ratios the fuel ignites before it's supposed to which is hard on engines. How high a compression ratio an engine can use is partly determined by how clever the design is and partly by the octane rating of the fuel- The higher the octane, the higher a compression ratio can be used. High octane fuels can also be ignited earlier, and modern electronic controlled engines can adjust their timing to ignite the fuel earlier and thus take advantage of higher octane fuels. Thus ethanol blends in a modern engine that can take advantage of ethanol's higher octane can deliver the same performance and economy on E10, E20, and E30 as they do on 100% gasoline. That's why researchers have found that E20 and E30 are the optimum ethanol blends for modern spark ignition engines.
So welcome to Ethanol 2.0, and leave behind the tired old myths about energy balance, fuel systems, and the blender credit. In fact, the farmers and their ethanol co-ops no longer want the ethanol credit- they just want you to be able to buy high performance ethanol blends like E20 and E30. To do that we need "blender pumps"-pumps that let you choose between E15, E20, E30, E50, and E85 blends. But fuel pumps are expensive, so we need tax incentives nationwide like we have out here on the Buffalo Ridge to help defray the cost of offering consumers more fuel choices. And when more consumers have the opportunity to choose more ethanol, more high performance ethanol byproducts like Dry Distillers Grain (DDG) are produced. DDG is a much prized livestock feed around here, and in fact the DDG coming out of the ethanol plants has more protein than the corn that goes in. Besides producting renewable fuels, ethanol plants are increasingly themselves fueled by them, using previously wasted corn stalks and other biofuels to heat and even power their plants. And Cellulostic Ethanol is in the wings- A pilot plant is already producing ethanol from inedible plant stocks.
So find a blender or E85 pump near you,, and if you can't find one, ask your local gas stations to get them!
(crossposted on Buffalo Ridge Blog.)