It's not there quite yet, but it's heading the right direction and could reach critical mass for consumer availability much sooner than any other alternative energy source.

I wonder how an engine designed to run on E85 only would do without having to compensate for the ability to run regular gas.

 

True enough.

 

I've been wondering this as well. All flex fuel vehicles can run on E85 or regular unleaded. Have they made an engine that will only run on E85 and not regular unleaded?

 

Here is a very informative site, although probably biased. I found the FAQs page to be a very good read.

www.E85fuel.com

Sorry if someone has already posted this

 

If you designed an engine to run E85 all the time, I'm thinking you could raise the static compression ratio/and or run more boost, thus making more power than you could on normal 91 Octane gas. Which ought to compensate for the 20% less MPG. E85 has an octane rating of 106+. BTW I read that the Indy Racing League is supposed to be switching to running pure ethanol in the near future. That tells you something about the viability of Ethanol as a high perf. fuel.

 

GM's E85 page: http://www.gm.com/company/onlygm/

 

Sorta true. E10 or E15(sold in some places) is more pollutant than straight gas. E85 is less pollutant than straight gas.

 

This is sorta true as well, and here's why:

E5, E10 and similar low blends are done with a low grade of gasoline that would not otherwise be able to be sold at the pumps. What the oil companies have done to deal with those ethanol requirements is use the higher octane, cleaner burning ethanol as an additive to a low grade cheap gasoline.

The refiners don't have to process the gas as much, so they save money. They get the ethanol for cheap which saves them money as well. They blend the two together to get an 87 octane fuel that just barely runs an internal combustion engine without damage.

So again, the oil companies have screwed us over. Legislation was put in place to achieve better better emissions and lessen oil consumption. Instead, the greedy bastards have defeated the purpose of legislation and come up with in inferior product for cheaper. So they make a profit on the cheapo E5/E10. Then to add insult to injury, they capitalize on the fact that the fuel is crap, and use it as a justification to lobby against it.

We have this very situation in Oregon. Our winter ethanol mandates produce fuel that people hate. And its not the fault of ethanol...its the fault of the cruddy gas that they mix it with. Ethanol gets a bad name and the oil companies profit because of the intentional sabotage.

The laws need to be changed to force the oil companies to blend ethanol with the same grade gasoline as would be normally sold.

...somehow this thread has gotten a little political - and I have contributed. Sorry about that. Just happens to be a topic that I follow closely.

 

As long as less is not equal to zero than you get pollutants.

 

I'm all for fuel flex e85, but for a much different reason.

If I understand correctly, E85 needs a beefier fuel system than a normal gasoline system.. Rubber fuel lines need to be higher quality (e85 will rot through them quicker), and since omre E85 needs to be burned, the fuel pump and injectors need to flow more..

That means for normal gasoline performance, we all get a bigger fuel pump, lines, injectors, etc in place from the factory, setting the stage for HP upgrades..

 

I wonder if my push lawn mower would run on E85!? A little extra power for cutting down some of those stubborn grasses and weeds

 

Because there is still gassed mixed with it.

 

All VERY good points!! That's something that I wondered if anyone else caught on to.

I hope that E85 will become as cheap as some of you seem to think it will be. Why is it automatically assumed that it will be so drastically cheaper than regular gas?
I could easily see them pricing it
A) "Competitivly" (meaning the same as regular, or even premium- it is 106 octane remember). That means you will pay more for each mile you drive (assuming current MPG hit is not overcome), same cost + lower mpg = you wondering why you thought ethanol was going to be cheaper.
B) Higher, b/c at the moment it is more $$ per gallon, and they may 'forget' to drop the price as their procceses become streamlined. Or it may simply end up that from start to finish it will cost more to bring E85 to the pumps than gas.

Not trying to flame anyone, just challenging some aussumptions.

 

Those would be my fears as well. But maybe the government would help keep the prices down enough to encourage consumers, so that we could slow down our dependency on oil?

 

I don't think anyone is claiming ethanol is drastically cheaper than gasoline...in fact, it is not. It is competetively cheaper, but not drastically at today's technology...and don't forget the $.51 subsidy.

Even the best cellulosic technology coming online, claims only to be able to produce ethanol at a price of $1.10/gallon.

But that's just today's technology. The next few years will hopefully produce better results.

But remember, its not the price of ethanol that is attractive: What is attractive:
- Its renewable.
- It breaks our dependence on foreign oil imports, which account for more than half of our trade defecit.
- It burns cleaner than alcohol
- Environmental concerns are lower. Alcohol spills are far less dangerous than gas/oil spills because of the biodegradeable nature of ethanol.
- Once cellulosic technology becomes main stream, we have enough of a resource to actually export ethanol, turning a minus situation into a plus situation.
- For once we might not be living under the thumb of the Oil Hegemony. Any farmer can contribute and even start up their own operation....which is essentially what is happening today.