Alternative Fuel Sources - Part Four - E85

by Darren

E85 is an alternative fuel source with lots of support from powerful backers. E85 is ethanol which can be used in modified gas engines in a mixture of up to 85% ethanol . The advantage is that the use of E85 can be used by millions easily, hence creating an immediate net positive effect on the environment. We’ll examine both the good points and the bad points about E85 in this article.

E85 is already in widespread use in the Brazil and Sweden, and is being deployed rapidly in many parts of the United States. E85 is already becoming more prevalent in the Midwest due to the prevalence of corn farms. Ethanol investment has risen sharply in recent years, and a number of new ethanol production facilities have opened. All of these developments would seemingly point to bright prospects for E85 in the United States.

E85 runs on so-called “flex fuel” engines.

Flexible fuel vehicles (FFVs) are designed to run on gasoline or a blend of up to 85% ethanol (E85). Except for a few engine and fuel system modifications, they are identical to gasoline-only models.

A lot of people already own flex-fuel vehicles, so that’s one big advantage to the E85 movement. But most “filling stations” don’t offer E85, and it is estimated it would cost $200,000 per station to retrofit the pumps. This has been the main sticking point that has prevent nationwide proliferation of E85.

In 2007, federal agencies purchased 45% more vehicles capable of using alternative fuel sources, but end using gasoline for almost of them because of the lack of pumping stations. There are a total of 1,400 E85 stations in the U.S., with most concentrated in Illinois, Minnesota and Iowa.

Advantages of E85

1. E85 diminishes the current foreign dependence on crude oil because it can be produced domestically
2. Many Flex-Fuel Vehicles (FFVs) already exist, so a transition to E85 makes sense and won’t be painful for most consumers
3. E85 is cleaner that gasoline, with some studies saying E85 can cut greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by as much as 46%.
4. E85 is around the price of gasoline, so people wouldn’t have to pay much more for a cleaner alternative

Disadvantages of E85

1. 1,400 filling stations in the United States is far too few and $200,000 per station is far too much to expect station owners to pay for an upgrade. The government will probably end up having to subsidize the upgrades.
2. E85 is less efficient as a transportation fuel than gas and costs nearly as much
3. E85 is basically a corrosive solvent, so it can do great damage to holding tanks, making transportation and storage more difficult than with normal gasoline.
4. Deployment of E85 may affect land use and could cause food shortages and price increases

As with most of the other alternative fuel sources I’ve researched, E85 holds much promise but has serious challenges which have to be addressed in order to be successful. Whether E85 can totally replace gas is doubtful, but it does represent a cleaner fuel in many applications, and undoubtedly the move towards E85 is better than doing nothing. The U.S government says that government owned cars have to increase their use of alternative fuel by 10% each year, so that could very well spur faster development of subsidies.

Continued from: Alternative Fuel Sources - Part Three - Biomass to Liquid (BTL). Continued in: Alternative Fuel Sources - Part Five - Oil Shale