Posted on 06/08/2022 7:36:05 AM PDT by dalight
Last Friday the Biden administration raised the mandatory amount of biofuel, specifically ethanol, that must be blended within the U.S. gasoline supply. The previous amount of 10% (summer blend) was raised to a year-round 15% (waiver) by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). This is likely to lead to two sets of bigger issues, less food and higher gas prices.
♦ First issue. – The Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) is a government mandate, passed in 2005 and expanded in 2007, that requires growing volumes of biofuels to be blended into U.S. transportation fuels like gasoline and diesel every year. Approximately 40 percent of corn grown in the U.S. is used for ethanol. Raising the amount of ethanol required in gasoline will result in the need for more biofuel (corn). With farming costs and outputs already under pressure this could be problematic.
♦ Second issue – The EPA enforces the biofuel standard by requiring refineries to submit purchase credits (known as Renewable Identification Numbers, or RINs) to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) proving the purchases. This enforcement requirement sets up a system where the RIN credits are bought and sold by small refineries who do not have the infrastructure to do the blending process. They purchase second-hand RIN credits from parties that blended or imported biofuels directly. This sets up a secondary income stream, a trading market for the larger oil companies, refineries and importers.
The RIN credit trading platform is similar to what we might expect to see if the ‘Carbon Trading’ scheme was ever put into place. However, now that summer biofuel requirements for blended gasoline have gone from 10% to 15%, the price of the RIN credits will likely jump. This will cost refineries billions in additional expenses,…. which will mean the cost of the gasoline from the refineries will increase,….. which will mean the cost of the gasoline at the pump will go higher.
♦ Third Issue – “Ethanol is a valuable source of octane in finished gasoline, but it is chemically different than petroleum gasoline and cannot be used in concentrations above 10 percent in small engines — like outboard boat motors, motorcycles, lawnmowers, generators or chain saws — or in any cars made before 2001. Complicating matters further, most cars on the road today still aren’t warrantied to run on gasoline with more than 10 percent ethanol. Retail stations also must have compatible infrastructure in order to sell gasoline with higher ethanol blends.” This issue is known within the industry as “The Blend Wall.”
The owner’s manual for my Nissan Frontier says that ANY fuel additives could harm the engine and the warranty is void if the engine is damaged due to fuel additives.
It’s all BS from the lawyers, and I don’t care. The warranty on that truck expired over 20 years ago.
I can’t even find 10 percent blend in my area. All we have is zero percent unblended gas.
You are correct. According to iowacorn.org, 99% of the corn grown in Iowa is field corn. Only 1% is sweet corn. Field corn is grown specifically for ethanol and livestock consumption. Sweet corn is grown for human consumption.
see #17
There seems to be a lot of different answers depending on who you ask:
https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/articles/why-does-e85-run-cooler-and-make-more-power/
BOB (before oxygenate blending) gas has an octane of something like 85. Adding 10% ethanol brings it to 87 octane.
Some folks here wish they’d bring the leaded gas back.
They are an example of the deleterious effects of lead exposure to the human brain.
There are no enzymes that can change alcohol into gasoline. Sorry.= = =
How about I do my own 15% ethanol.
Say I buy 10 gallons gasoline (non-ethonal in my fantasy).
Then, to make the 15%, I buy 1.5 gallons of alcohol.
Beer, wine, hard stuff, whatever.
If I am judicious, I can drink it by the time those 10 gallons are used up.
Probably not a good idea to use both at the same time.
Okay, maybe temperature has nothing to do with it.
However, I have personally seen gel balls in the bowl of the carburetor of one of my machines. I had to soak it in carb(acetone) cleaner overnight to clean it out.
I’m pretty sure this article has some inaccuracies. From what I’ve read, the order does not require all E10 pumps to be converted to E15. The order simply allows the sale of E15 during the summer months when previously it was not allowed due to the extra smog E15 causes. The vast majority of gas sold will remain E10, from the other sources I’ve seen.
Corn used for ethanol is also used for animal feed.
Ethanol is a powerful solvent. Perhaps a formed solution of contaminants, whatever they might have been, gelled.
That’s quite possible.
If I am reading it right, pure ethanol is 120-135 octane. That makes enough difference to end up with detonation on an engine without knock sensors, which would be all small engines that I have ever seen. The old L-head Briggs and Stratton would probably live through it as the compression ratio is low but OHV and OHC engines typically run decent CR’s.
Some of the pumps state that E-10 has -up to- 10% ethanol so octane could vary from one batch to the next.
We have been running Tru-fuel in the small engines at the fire department and it works well. I haven’t had to tear into a carburetor since we made the switch. I still hate that it costs so much.
I don’t know anyone using this process. It’s a FYI DIY if you really need it.
Kind of like making your own baby food if you really need to.
What I found running engines on methanol was that the intake would get so cold that it would try to freeze water vapor from the air in the intake tract and could decrease the diameter of the it to the point that you lost performance or it just quit until the engine heat thawed it.
The higher octane also makes the engine run cooler. Think of octane as the resistance to burn.
The reason we are burning up small engines is that the moisture in the air combines with the ethanol and the resultant will stay in solution to about 10% before it falls out of suspension. The ethanol is used to increase octane so when it is no longer there, you have lower octane and higher exhaust gas temperatures.
The problem with ethanol in small engines is that it will plug up the jets in the carburetor if the fuel sits in it for an extended period. That is why you need to add fuel stabilizer to it.
If it is a 2 cycle engine then the 2 cycle oil already contains fuel stabilizer. IF it is a four cycle engine, you need to add the stabilizer if it sits in the tank for a long period.
This is why at the end of the season I run my small engines dry and then replace the fuel in the tank/carb with a NON Ethanol fuel brand like True Fuel.
This whole mandatory ethanol mix has been a boom for the fuel stabilizer industry. Their sales most be up several thousand percent over where the were ten years ago.
In addition, all the small engine equipment manufacturers have their own brand of non ethanol gasoline sold in 1 quart to 1 gallon containers. My local John Deere & Stihl dealer has about 5 different brands available now.
I think some small engines are prone to getting water in the fuel either because they are stored outdoors (and getting rained on), or they don’t have a very well sealed fuel system, or both.
My riding mower has a well-sealed fuel system and I keep it in my garage. By well-sealed I mean that the fuel cap fits/seals tightly and I smell no gasoline vapors around the riding mower’s tank or fuel lines.
As a result, even though I only use E10 gas in it (if I wanted E0 gas it’s a 50-mile round-trip to a gas station that sells it, so that’s out of the question), and I leave the gas in it over the winter, I have had no problems with it. It starts up every spring.
But someone else here was saying that they add water to ethanol gas to INTENTIONALLY cause phase separation, then use the gas they get from that in their small engines. That’s going to be low-octane gas, probably 85 octane, or whatever BOB (before oxygenate blending) gas is.
I leave E10 gas in my riding mower all winter and I don’t bother with fuel stabilizer.
I’ve done that for 5 years now.
I do keep it in my garage, it is not sitting outside all winter getting snowed and rained on.
Yes. Even 100% gasoline tanks need a depolymerization additive to prevent higher molecular weight (polymer) formation, if stored for long periods. This will prevent the formation of little balls that will plug gas pipes, jets and valves.
Imagine the mess!
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