Re: fictitious fiznodial engines

Yeah, I guess ADM are fooled into thinking anything with a Hyrdoxyl group
are alcohols....Thanks for the heads up!

"my cars run on various blends of gas-ethonal, no big deal."

You McFly are running E10 in natuarally aspirated engines. You lack the
compression ratio and timing control to take advantage of the fuel.
Think turbo running at 25 psi, octane that is 11 points higher that the best
pump gas and (here's the kicker) superior latent heat of evaporation.

Since you love the Wiki, try this quote:

"E85 gives particularly good results in turbocharged cars due to its high
octane [3]. It allows the ECU to run more favorable ignition timing and
leaner fuel mixtures than are possible on normal premium gasoline. Users who
have experimented with converting OBDII (i.e., On-Board Diagnostic System 2,
that is for 1996 model year and later) turbocharged cars to run on E85 have
had very good results. Experiments indicate that most OBDII-specification
turbocharged cars can run up to approximately 39% E85 (33% ethanol) with no
CEL's or other problems. (In contrast, most OBDII specification
fuel-injected non-turbocharged cars and light trucks are more forgiving and
can usually operate well with in excess of 50% E85 (42% ethanol) prior to
having CEL's occur.) Fuel system compatibility issues have not been reported
for any OBDII cars or light trucks running on high ethanol mixes of E85 and
gasoline for periods of time exceeding two years. (This is likely to be the
outcome justifiably expected of the normal conservative automotive
engineer's predisposition not to design a fuel system merely resistant to
ethanol in E10, or 10% percentages, but instead to select materials for the
fuel system that are nearly impervious to ethanol.)
Fuel economy does not drop as much as might be expected in turbocharged
engines based on the specific energy content of E85 compared to gasoline, in
contrast to the previously-reported reduction of 23.7% reduction in a 60:40
blend of gasoline to E85 for one non-turbocharged, fuel-injected, non-FFV.
Although E85 contains only 72% of the energy on a gallon for gallon basis
compared to gasoline, experimenters have seen much better fuel mileage than
this difference in energy content implies. Many automotive writers and
columnists suggest that because of the lower energy content, you should
expect an equivalent 39% increase in fuel usage. This has not been observed
in practice when running gasoline and ethanol blends. Some of the newest
model FFV's get only about 7% less mileage per gallon of fuel of E85
compared to their gasoline fuel mileage.

The reason for this non-intuitive difference is that the turbocharged engine
seems especially well-suited for operation on E85, for it in effect has a
variable compression ratio capability, which is exactly what is needed to
accommodate varying ethanol and gasoline ratios that occur in practice in an
FFV. At light load cruise, the turbocharged engine operates as a low
compression engine. Under high load and high manifold boost pressures, such
as accelerating to pass or merge onto a highway, it makes full use of the
higher octane of E85. It appears that due to the better ignition timing and
better engine performance on a fuel of 100 octane, the driver spends less
time at high throttle openings, and can cruise in a higher gear and at lower
throttle openings than is possible on 100% premium gasoline. In daily
commute driving, mostly highway, 100% E85 in a turbocharged car can hit fuel
mileages of over 90% of the normal gasoline fuel economy. Tests indicate
approximately a 5% increase in engine performance is possible by switching
to E85 fuel in high performance cars."









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Relevant Pages

  • Re: Experience driving with E85
    ... about ethanol as a fuel is around two years old. ... And I filled up with straight E85. ... It is true that the energy density of ethanol is about ... 30% less than that of gasoline. ...
    (sci.chem)
  • Re: Experience driving with E85
    ... about ethanol as a fuel is around two years old. ... since the ECU in my car had hit the limit trying to increase ...  And I filled up with straight E85. ... 30% less than that of gasoline. ...
    (sci.chem)
  • Para levantar um pouco a moral das cobaias
    ... Flexible-fuel vehicles are seen as a way to cut our use of gasoline because ... they can run on a fuel that is mostly grain-based ethanol distilled in the ... E85 or any mix of gasoline and ethanol in between. ... But you risk ruining a conventional vehicle if you ...
    (soc.culture.brazil)
  • Re: Experience driving with E85
    ... about ethanol as a fuel is around two years old. ... And I filled up with straight E85. ... It is true that the energy density of ethanol is about ... 30% less than that of gasoline. ...
    (sci.chem)
  • Re: OT: Bad, bad ethanol
    ... substantially fewer miles per gallon than gasoline -- something like 30% ... This decrease in mpg is expected because ethanol contains less ... That's because you are using your car with a fuel ... If ethanol ever becomes common cars will have bigger tanks. ...
    (talk.origins)