Nowadays, many car manufacturers are producing cars that can safely consume ethanol or regular gas. These cars are called flex-fuel cars. According to AutoBlog , as long as your car was made later than , it should be able to handle at least an E10 gas. Anything older than that, and you may want to replace some of the old rubber lines on the engine before you put a more oxygenated gas into it.
Ethanol gas has many benefits. One of the benefits is that it can help the environment by emitting less carbon dioxide into the air. Scientists and researchers continue to make great strides in coming up with various types of biofuels to use in vehicles. With the great advancements that are being made in the clean-burning fuel industry, we are sure to have a safer and cleaner Earth for centuries to come.
Ethanol has a higher octane number than gasoline, providing premium blending properties. Minimum octane number requirements for gasoline prevent engine knocking and ensure drivability. Ethanol contains less energy per gallon than gasoline, to varying degrees, depending on the volume percentage of ethanol in the blend. Energy is required to turn any raw feedstock into ethanol.
Find ethanol E85 fueling stations in your area. More Ethanol Publications All Publications. More in this section Ethanol Benefits and Considerations Ethanol is a renewable, domestically produced transportation fuel. Fuel Economy and Performance A gallon of ethanol contains less energy than a gallon of gasoline, resulting in lower fuel economy when operating your vehicle. Job Impacts Ethanol production creates jobs in rural areas where employment opportunities are needed.
Emissions The carbon dioxide released by a vehicle when ethanol is burned is offset by the carbon dioxide captured when the feedstock crops are grown to produce ethanol. Today, we take another look at et h anol. You've probably noticed that many vehicles are labeled with a Flex Fuel badge from the manufacturer, indicating that the car or truck is capable of running safely on E85 — a blend of percent ethanol and percent gasoline.
For this article, we're not talking about E85 or other mixtures with high concentrations of the alcohol fuel. Even regular grade gas that you get from the fuel pump nearest you is very likely to have at least some amount of ethanol added, and in fact, the single largest single use of ethanol in the world is as fuel. And does your car need any modifications to use this ethanol-infused gasoline? Read on to find out. In the early s, the United States government issued a series of amendments to the Clean Air Act that included the requirement to use oxygenated gasoline minimum oxygen content of 2.
One of the favored oxygenates was methyl tert-butyl ether, or MTBE. This chemical compound was chosen due to its low price and because it helped mixers generate higher octane ratings. All seemed well until California discovered in that MTBE was showing up in high concentrations in its drinking water, which was traced back to spilled gasoline and leaky underground containers.
Ethanol was widely seen as a safer replacement for MTBE and its use was pushed by the agricultural industry here in the States.
So, now that we know why regular gasoline probably has at least some ethanol in it, the next logical question is do you need to be worried about it?
The answer is a qualified no. Today's cars and trucks are all fully capable of running on E10, a blend of percent ethanol and percent gasoline.
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