Ethanol playing bigger part meeting fuel needs

SAN ANGELO, Texas — Corn can take many forms. From popped in a bag, to consumed on the cob, to processed into syrup for soft drinks, the versatile vegetable has yet another use that has slowly taken hold of a much different market: vehicle fuel.

The fuel industry for years has been turning corn into ethanol and blending it with gasoline to form a mix that the federal government has mandated into the market.

“The Midwest has been blending ethanol into gasoline for two decades,” said Patrick Kelly, a policy adviser with the American Petroleum Institute. “Now places like West Texas that have not used ethanol in the past are seeing it for the first time.”

Occasionally stickers on gas pumps will display a giant ear of corn with a fuel hose coming out of it as a way to let the customer know that the gasoline contains ethanol.

Kevin Allexson of Exxon Mobil’s public affairs office said most vehicles in mass production take fuel only partially mixed with ethanol.

“The maximum amount of ethanol is going to be 10 percent,” Allexson said of most vehicles. “There are a limited number of states where there is E85,” a blend that is 85 percent ethanol.

Allexson said that while the use of ethanol has increased, “Getting a nationwide average is very hard.”

Kelly said that the United States has used 11.1 billion gallons of ethanol this year and that number is set to go up as a result of legislative mandates.

Congress passed the Energy Policy Act of 2005 that included a Renewable Fuel Standard, which mandated, for instance, that 7.5 billion gallons of renewable fuel be used in 2012.

Congress expanded the Renewable Fuel Standard when it passed the Energy Dependence and Security Act of 2007. The Renewable Fuel Standard orders 36 billion gallons of renewable fuel be produced in 2022.

“All of our gasoline is going to be blended with ethanol,” said Scott Fisher, vice president of policy and public affairs for the Texas Petroleum Marketers and Convenience Stores Association. “If it hasn’t already been converted, it will be.”

The expanded standard includes numbers of cellulosic ethanol, ethanol made from nonedible parts of corn or other organic matter.

The process could make ethanol from the corn cob, for example.

“The benefit of cellulosic ethanol is that you’re not using that part of the plant used in the food supply,” Kelly said.

Ethanol has its pros and cons once inside the engine.

On one hand, it burns cleaner than most fuels, Kelly said. He said ethanol is essentially the same alcohol as drinking alcohol.

Also, Kelly said it has an octane benefit. “It’s more attractive for a fuel provider to use ethanol because they don’t have to add octane to it,” Kelly said. “What octane does is it prevents a premature spark inside the combustion chamber.”

But because of the way ethanol acts as a cleaning agent, older cars with dirtier gas tanks may need their fuel filters changed, Fisher said.

Fisher said that its being a cleansing agent creates a problem outside the engine, too.

“The only disadvantage of ethanol, because it does absorb water, and because of its characteristic of cleaning, it can’t be put through the pipeline,” Fisher said. “It must be blended at the terminal with gasoline.”

That means ethanol must be shipped on barges or transported on trucks, Fisher said.

Additionally, ethanol burns hotter, so older vehicles may get damaged hoses and fuel lines, Kelly said.

“When you get above 10 percent (ethanol blend), especially in the 85 percent, a whole host of issues come up,” Kelly said. “Ethanol tends to be more corrosive to the internal parts of the fuel delivery system. ... These are all things that can be overcome in new engines. It’s the issue of the existing fleet that’s really the main concern.”

Kelly said ethanol can also hinder fuel efficiency.

For a 10 percent blend, the fuel economy loss is 2 percent, which Kelly said is within the normal variability of an engine.

“Once you go over 10 percent, the fuel economy loss is more noticeable,” Kelly said. “If you fill up at E85, you’re only going to go two-thirds on the same tank of gasoline. Your price per gallon is going to be the same but your price per mile is going to go up.”

Kelly said the issue in the fuel industry field is determining the optimal blend for ethanol and gasoline.

“These are all things that are being studied by the auto industry and the Department of Energy,” Kelly said. “If E10 is OK and E85 is not, what is the number in between that’s compatible with the current fleet of engines?”

source: gosanangelo