‘Generic Fuel’ Might Make Good Slogan
by Susanne Retka Schill (Ethanol Producer Magazine) Ethanol – the generic fuel. Nice phrase that might have some merit as a slogan. It’s adapted from a letter to the editor from Merle Wise, Sebastian, Fla. that was posted on www.tcpalm.com, the website of several newspapers serving the Florida Coast and Palm Beaches.
…One big hurdle must be overcome: we have maxed out E10. Just about all of ethanol possible is now being blended with gasoline. E15 is on its way to full approval, but it needs to be successfully introduced as an E10 replacement. There’s a lot of work being done to pin down how to optimize engines for ethanol. Right now, the crappy mileage when using higher ethanol blends is most often a result of engines still being optimized for gasoline, and not taking full advantage of ethanol’s higher octane rating. Instead, we’ve heard that refiners are using ethanol’s octane so they can refine more gasoline out of a barrel of crude and get their high-priced crude to go a little further.
If we’re at the blend wall now with just corn ethanol production in the U.S., there won’t be a market for the cellulosic ethanol when it finally comes online. That is why keeping incentives for cellulosic ethanol in place in the RFS and elsewhere is so important. It is critical that people with FFVs begin using E85. It would be a game changer if FFVs were to start performing better using higher blends, which those engine optimization efforts may yet show. READ MORE
