Are You Ready for the E30 Challenge?

by Dave VanderGriend (ICM/Urban Air Initiative/Ethanol Producer Magazine) ... Watertown is challenging conventional wisdom in order for biofuels like ethanol to finally realize their true potential.

Conventional wisdom says our nonflex autos can only operate on 10 percent ethanol blends and, at most, 15 percent. But those of us in the ethanol industry are well aware that the original Model T built by Henry Ford was designed to run on high blends of ethanol. Its high octane would allow for higher compression and increased efficiency, an elusive brass ring we continue to reach for today, more than 100 years later.

It took the Iranian oil embargoes of the late 1970s to spark a renewed interest in ethanol and “gasohol” was born as a mix of 10 percent ethanol and 90 percent gasoline. But 10 percent volume blends should never have been the baseline—cars then and now are capable of using much higher blends and the auto industry knows it. In fact the optimum blend to maximize octane and energy content is in the 25 to 40 percent volume range, according to the U.S. DOE.

So what does this have to do with Watertown? Well, a revolution has to start somewhere and ethanol producer Glacial Lakes Energy is spearheading an "E30 Challenge," encouraging everyone to use blends up to E30 regardless of whether they have a flex-fuel vehicle. The goals are to increase the amount of ethanol chosen at the local blending pump and to show the U.S. EPA that midlevel blends work in nonflex vehicles. Glacial Lakes Energy is collecting data on how E30 responds in 50 makes and models.

Education and promotion of the E30 Challenge on the community level will be done with print and radio ads, as well as seminars and clinics with dealerships, technical colleges, automotive technicians and Farmers Union members. Retailers will also be educated on the value of octane, clean air and local jobs. At the Urban Air Initiative, we are actively engaged in this project as it completely supports our push for higher ethanol blends to improve fuel quality, reduce emissions and protect public health.

For instance, in its 2016 Mini-Hardtop owners’ manual, BMW endorsed the use of E25 higher octane blends in its standard (nonflex fuel) vehicles. Mercedes-Benz engineers have urged the EPA to approve the use of high octane E30 blends because they have “ridiculous power and good fuel economy.” All gasoline-powered vehicles in Brazil efficiently operate on blends of at least 27 percent ethanol. And, a recent study by Ford, GM, and Chrysler found that E30’s higher octane could improve vehicle performance and mileage and that even noncalibrated standard vehicles could benefit from ethanol’s superior octane properties. READ MORE and MORE and MORE