In a press release this week, Todd Sneller, administrator of the Nebraska Ethanol Board claimed, “if all the fuel sold in Nebraska in the past five years was E85, Nebraskans would have saved $2.6 billion.”
Mr. Sneller might want to check his math.
The pump price of E85 doesn’t account for the decreased energy content of ethanol when compared with gasoline. According to the AAA, the real price of E85 when adjusted for MPG/Btu was $2.846 – 20.7 cents more than the price of regular gasoline.
Moreover, the daily retail price data reported by AAA illustrates that the E85 MPG/Btu adjusted price has been higher than retail gasoline prices since at least August, 2007. Nebraskans are losing money at the pump and being sold a bill of goods by the Ethanol Board.
GasMan needs to go back to school and find out how much unburned gasoline leaves the cylinder and gets scrubbed by the catalytic converter vs how much unburned ethanol leaves the cylinder. About 40% of the BTU in the gasoline never gets to the wheels. Ethanol puts 98% of its BTU to the wheels. Gasoline has more BTU per gallon, that’s true. But it does not use 40% of it. Makes the energy argument invalid, and also fails to account for the steam “kick” from the water formed when ethanol burns.
George, I don’t know what kind of a “steam kick” you get in your engine (usually water in gas is bad, see the articles about boats and E10), but your general point is wrong. Ethanol provides WORSE MPG. Various based on type of driving, but on average it is a LOT worse. See http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/cars/new-cars/news/2006/ethanol-10-06/tests-of-ethanol-vs.-gasoline/1006_ethanol_test_1.htm
Manufacturers just need more time to develop alcohol resistant materials for fuel lines and gaskets. Ethanol is a great way to hold the price of fuel down. We just need to adapt our equipment to be alcohol compatible.
Outboard motors on boats really take a beating from ethanol. Especially the older models, but I have a quick and easy fix for old Mercury outboards that works and all it involves is adding “Marvel Mystery Oil” to the boats gas tank. The full story is on my wordpress blog please see http://wp.me/pb0Ok-1n