Re: Study Finds Ethanol Blends Deliver Better Fuel Economy

"Paul D. DeRocco" <pderocco@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> writes:

"Initial findings indicate that we as a nation haven't begun to recognize
the value of ethanol," said Brian Jennings, executive vice president of
the American Coalition for Ethanol. "This is a compelling argument for
more research on the promise of higher ethanol blends in gasoline. There
is strong evidence that the optimal ethanol-gasoline blend for standard,
non-flex-fuel vehicles is greater than E10 and instead may be E20 or E30.
We > encourage the federal government to move swiftly to research the use
of higher ethanol blends and make necessary approvals so that American
motorists can have the cost-effective ethanol choices they deserve at the
pump."
(Personally, I am skeptical considering the Ethanol industry paid for the
research. That's like Phillip-Morris sponsoring a study that says
cigarettes > don't cause cancer).

I'm skeptical, too. If there's some peculiar reason why these blends just
happen to work particularly well in present day cars, then it ought to be
possible to find out why, and tweak them to work still better with gasoline.
The bottom line is still the bottom line: there's less energy per gallon in
ethanol.

I call shenanigans anyway. It's certainly possible that the mpg output is
not linear for increasing ethanol percentage but I find it hard to believe
it could go *up*. E10 in my tank was an obvious economy drain consistently.

--
Cameron Kaiser * ckaiser@xxxxxxxxxxxx * posting with a Commodore 128
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