Ethanol in Gasoline
Ethanol Problems
Ethanol as a Replacement for MTBE

Ethanol is the Future, Ethanol is Coming, Ethanol is Here; there is a new headline about Ethanol nearly every day now.

Ethanol production is a well understood technology with the potential improve dramatically in efficiency that may in the future offer a partial solution to US energy needs. It is not the be all, end all, but it can help.

Beyond the current hype, Ethanol plays a small but important role in today's fuels marketplace. In the future this role will likely become much more significant and even vital to our energy program.

Ethanol is best known as "grain alcohol" or sometimes as "moonshine". It is produced by taking a grain, such as corn, crushing it and mixing with water and yeasts to form a mash. This mash is allowed to ferment for a few days. The wort (fermented mash) is then boiled in a still and with the help of the cooling tower it distills the vapors into a pure alcohol.

The residual solids left from the wort are useable as cattle feed and the water used is recycled.

In most cases this pure alcohol is then denatured, meaning a small amount of gasoline is added to render the alcohol undrinkable. This makes the Revenuer's (ATF) happy. Heaven forbid we should waste valuable fuel by drinking it.

This Ethanol is then suitable as a motor fuel, However there are several characteristics and issues that need to be understood and taken into consideration when using this fuel.

Ethanol can be blended with petroleum gasoline from 0.1%-99.9% to 1%.

Most commonly blends of 10% to 15% are available in the US. However blends up to 85% (E85) are possible for vehicles designed and manufactured to run on this fuel. These Flex-Fuel vehicles have had changes made to fuel system and engine components to prevent problems caused by the solvency and high level of corrosion caused by Ethanol and to the computer software to allow it to operate the engine on a broad range of fuels.

Of late, many Automobile and Light Truck Manufacturers have touted their Flex-Fuel vehicles that will run on gasoline containing up to 85% Ethanol (E85). The problem today is that out of 185,000 gas stations in the US only about 640 currently offer E85.

Ethanol contains approximately 76,000 Btu's per gallon (E85 contains approximately 80,000 Btu's per gallon) as compared to 124,800 Btu's per gallon of regular unleaded gasoline and 140,000 Btu's per gallon for diesel fuel.

This means that it will take approximately 1.56 gallons of E85 Gasohol (85% Ethanol - 15% Gasoline) to drive the same number of miles as 1 gallon of gasoline.

The US produced approximately 4,000,000,000 gallons of Ethanol last year, while we used over 130,000,000,000 gallons of gasoline.

When you must consider that most of the Ethanol produced was used in industrial processes. It means that the Ethanol being added to gasoline amounts to less than 2% of our gasoline supply.

It will be a long time before new Ethanol supplies make any significant difference in our fuels supply.

Depending on who you ask, it takes between 30,000 and 110,000 Btu's of fuel energy to produce one gallon of Ethanol (76,000 Btu energy content). In short, it likely takes ½ to 1-1/4 gallons of petroleum fuel to produce 1 gallon of Ethanol. If we can get it under ½ gallon of petroleum to produce 1 gallon of Ethanol it will become worthwhile.

We have recently seen several issues of concern that appear to be related to gasoline containing Ethanol (Gasohol).

Blends above 10% are likely to cause problems in vehicles not designed for alcohol. These problems include delamination (chemical breakdown) of rubber, plastic, and synthetic components such as; rubber, plastic, and synthetic hoses, fuel lines, plastic fuel pumps, plastic fuel tanks, fiberglass fuel tanks, fuel tanks that are epoxy coated, or with rubberized, or plasticized liners, and aluminum, copper, brass, or bronze fuel system and injection system components.

Vehicles stored with gasoline containing Ethanol in the fuel tank are more likely to have problems with the alcohol causing component corrosion, deterioration, and breakdown. Special plastics, corrosion resistant stainless steel and other more expensive components must be used in any component that touches fuel containing alcohol.

Ethanol is much more hygroscopic than regular gasoline. This holding of dissolved or suspended water can lead to more component corrosion; and gum, varnish, and carbon deposit formation problems.

Ethanol is not as volatile as gasoline, therefore as the percentage of alcohol increases; the engine becomes progressively more difficult to start in cold weather conditions.

Ethanol is a strong solvent and has been used by industry for hundreds of years to clean various types of contaminants and to dissolve and suspend solids.

Gasoline with dissolved solids (plastics, styrene's, rubber materials, etc.) that will tend to reform as the fuel evaporates. The reforming of the dissolved material shows up as deposits in the fuel system and engine. This material has shown up as deposits on the throttle plate, injector's piston crowns, and exhaust valves. It is also a problem with PCV's systems and turbochargers.

In some cases, particularly in the marine markets, gasoline containing Ethanol has been found to saturate and partially dissolve fiberglass fuel tanks. This has been found to cause severe engine problems and very serious safety concerns from leakage.

In many areas of the US and Canada Ethanol is replacing MTBE in gasoline. MTBE has been used until recently as an Octane Improver and Oxygenate in gasoline.

MTBE has been determined to be a dangerous carcinogen and groundwater pollutant. As a result the EPA and major refiners worried about potential liability have been scrambling to replace it.

So far Ethanol has been found to be the best replacement as it improves Octane and adds Oxygen to improve emissions. The biggest problem is that we do not make enough domestically to offset the loss of MTBE and we have a very high tariff on imported Ethanol.

There is currently a rush to build more Ethanol capacity in the US; however any significant relief is 3-5 years away.

There is also a problem where Gasoline, MTBE, Ethanol, and Water come together. This combination can cause formations of a thick, gooey, black material that wreaks havoc on fuel systems.

This is primarily a problem for refiners and distributors of gasoline that do not sufficiently clean there tank bottoms before switching from MTBE fuel to Ethanol fuel.

There are also supply issues because Ethanol must be blended at the rack. Due to its extreme corrosiveness Ethanol will generally not be pre-blended and stored in regular tanks. If pre-blended, it could severely corrode storage tanks and fuel delivery equipment.

One might ask, it the fuel refiners and distributors are that concerned about their equipment, should we be concerned about storage and use in our equipment.

Well Worth now offers products to control, ameliorate, and even eliminate these problems. We can disperse water from fuel, reduce or eliminate corrosion, prevent the formation and build-up of deposits, and clean and remove the existing deposits.

Contact Well Worth today to ask about our OctiPlus products for gasolines.