Earth Day 2021 Series Day 10: Can Biofuels Become Cost Effective? Some Already Are!
by Joanne Ivancic* (Advanced Biofuels USA) Looking to save money on gas AND decrease your carbon footprint? If your vehicle was built after 2000, have you tried E15? That’s 15% renewable fuel, half as much more than the usual E10 regular gasoline. Sometimes it’s branded “Unleaded 88” because in addition to being cheaper, it has more octane which means more performance. So, cleaner, greener, and get more out of your existing engine! What’s not to like?
How do you know it’s cheaper? Check out http://e85prices.com/ This image of prices is from March 22, 2021.
The US Environmental Protection Agency has OK’d use of E15 in vehicles (but NOT motorcycles) built in 2001 and sooner.
The E30 Sweet Spot and FFVs
Advanced Biofuels USA covered the details of the engineering and science in this relatively easy to understand booklet: New Engine Technologies Could Produce Similar Mileage for All Ethanol Fuel Mixtures It also explains how use of 30% ethanol blends (E30) with a properly programed turbocharged engine enhances efficiency.
Studies by the US DOE as part of its engines/fuels co-optimization program indicate “fuel blendstocks derived from biomass have the potential to elevate engine efficiency in boosted spark ignition engines,” particularly with E30’s “sweet spot”. (Energy, economic, and environmental benefits assessment of co-optimized engines and bio-blendstocks in Energy and Environmental Science.)
Joanne Ivancic explains E85 retrofit of a 2002 Ford Focus at EnergyPath in Allentown, PA.
AND, if you have a flex-fuel vehicle (FFV) (or retrofit to be able to use E85), you can use up to 85% ethanol, although you may experience around a 25% decrease in mileage due to the lower energy density of ethanol. That said, on March 17, 2021, in Michigan for example, the difference in the price of regular E10 gasoline and E85 was 28%, so you still come out on top both environmentally and cost-wise.
In Brazil, consumers are very familiar with calculating mileage differences and prices of high ethanol blends or E100 (actually about 96% ethanol and 4% water). S&P Global Platts explains that consumers there who have flex-fuel vehicles can fill their tanks with either gasoline, which has a blend of 27.5% anhydrous ethanol, or E100. They generally fill their tanks with E100 only when its price is 70% or less than the gasoline price, because of hydrous ethanol’s lower energy content.
Research conducted recently in Nebraska using E30 in non-flex fuel engines indicates that there might be no good reasons to restrict such use.
Importance of Policies and Oil Prices
For biodiesel and renewable diesel, the price of oil and policies such as a biodiesel blender’s tax credit that encourages use of this renewable fuel will determine if the renewable fuels are competitively priced—or not. If the price of oil settles in the $60-$65/barrel range, renewables start to become more competitive.
It seems that if you are talking about “cost effectiveness,” price is not the only important consideration.
You are also paying to decrease your carbon footprint, support your economy by buying domestically produced fuel (if available in your country) and to improve air quality. Those are bonuses that you don’t get when you pay for petroleum fuel.
The same goes for renewable sustainable aviation fuel (SAF). As this 2017 feasibility study about advanced SAF made from energy beets showed, SAF might have found a ready market with the US Navy.
Policies such as the EU’s Emission Trading System (EU ETS) and ReFuelEU, or a potential US blenders tax credit or low carbon fuel standard that includes aviation fuel could make it cost effective for airlines to demand SAF and then investors will finance its production.
Activists in California are talking about bans of internal combustion engines. What makes more sense are the conversations there about bans on drilling more oil wells.
Did you know there are about 70,000 active oil wells in California? This video shows how close oil wells are to residential areas in Los Angeles: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cSfXx7cMNWc&t=4s&ab_channel=CBCNews%3ATheNational
At the same time, it is exciting to see big oil companies repurposing old oil refineries so that they can make renewable diesel or SAF. What a welcome development, that some petroleum companies are finding it “cost effective” to transition to renewable fuels. “Cost effectiveness” for the rest of us shouldn’t be far behind.
What You Can Do:
-Use the highest ratio of renewables that’s appropriate for your vehicle.
-Retrofit an old car to make it able to use E85. Watch this Just A Minute episode that includes a video about this.
-Advocate for bans on drilling new oil wells instead of bans on internal combustion engines because those engines can run cleaner, greener and cheaper if they are fueled by renewables. That’s what we need to do while we wait for EVs to be affordable, available, powered by renewables using fair trade batteries. Watch this video for more information: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cSfXx7cMNWc&t=4s&ab_channel=CBCNews%3ATheNational
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*Joanne Ivancic serves as the executive director of Advanced Biofuels USA.
