Ethanol Fuel-Your experience?

[Jaak]

This may help.

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In a USA Today article, USA Today blew the whistle on the move to e20 in Australia. Reportedly, e20 testing in Australia lead to the damage of 40 percent of all the car's catalytic converters. http://www.e85safety.com/

Automakers also have doubts that it is as benign as E10. They are running trials, but they say they do not have enough data on how risky E20 is to components and whether it would change emissions in unwanted ways.

"Our vehicles are able to handle E10, but to move to E20 there are technical issues. It's not that simple," says Ford Motor (F) spokeswoman Kristen Kinley.

General Motors (GM) spokesman Alan Adler says that in E20 tests in Australia, "40% of the vehicles sustained (catalytic converter) damage, which allowed essentially unchecked tailpipe emissions."

"We believe there's not data sufficient to prove that all vehicles will function OK with E20," says Reg Modlin, director of environmental affairs for Chrysler. "It's not a legal fuel, and it would void the warranty."




Washington, D.C. – A new government study of ethanol fuels found that they don’t increase tailpipe emissions, but that mileage does go down when gas contains as much as 15 percent or 20 percent alcohol. Ten percent ethanol is now the legal limit for use in most cars.

The study, released today, also found that ethanol can increase temperatures in some cars’ catalytic converters, and that excess heat could be sufficient to damage the converters, according to an auto industry group.

The Energy Department studied the impact of the ethanol blends, known as E15 and E20, on 13 different automobile models and on 28 types of small engines, including ones used in lawnmowers and generators.

Under federal regulations, gasoline cannot contain more than 10 percent ethanol except for use specially equipped, flexible-fuel cars.

The ethanol industry wants the government to allow blends such as E15 or E20 to expand the market for the fuel. However, car makers and manufacturers of small engines have raised concerns that the ethanol could harm engines, and the higher blends also could run afoul of federal air-pollution laws if the alcohol were to increase emissions or damage emission-control equipment.
http://www.desmoinesregister.com/art...20/-1/biofuels