The Path to Higher Blends—Artificial Barriers Limiting Us to 10 percent

by Doug Durante (Clean Fuels Development Coalition/South Dakota Farmers Union) ... While almost all gasoline now contains 10 percent ethanol, we are easily producing enough that the base gasoline in the United States could absorb at least 12-15 percent. And, if the market was wide open, we would be able to blend to whatever level desired. With the exorbitant price of premium gasoline, a 30 percent ethanol blend for example might be quite attractive to independent retailers and even some major refiners. As our friends at Glacial Lakes Energy have clearly demonstrated, a 30 percent blend is substantially lower in cost and has proven to be trouble free in conventional vehicles. But, widespread adoption of higher blends has been elusive and there are several fundamental barriers.

First is the fact that a puzzling interpretation of existing law that applies a vapor pressure waiver to 10 percent blends is somehow assumed by many to mean ONLY 10 percent blends. Having been around long enough to have been part of these original regulations, I can say with certainty that no one envisioned ever having so much ethanol that we would go beyond 10 percent volume. So, the rule went into effect defining allowable blends as 10 percent. As a quick refresher, while ethanol is a clean, high-octane additive, one of its few demerits is that it raises vapor pressure when added to gasoline, resulting in a slight increase in evaporative emissions. However, its chemical property as an oxygenate results in greater combustion of the fuel which in turn results in much lower tailpipe emissions. Those reductions greatly outweigh any emissions from the vapor pressure increase so the waiver from vapor pressure restrictions was allowed.

As we tried to use higher blends beginning with E15 the petroleum industry – primarily refiners, with some on the retail side – argued existing law meant only 10 percent and somehow, inexplicably, won that argument. This, despite the fact that the law states the waiver applies to fuel “containing 10 percent ethanol” and we argued E15 contains 10 percent ethanol. Furthermore, and this is even more mindboggling, the vapor pressure increase peaks at 10 percent and starts to come down after that so there is no credible, technical argument against allowing it for all blends. As the volume of ethanol increases, at the point it reaches 30 percent, there is no vapor pressure increase at all!

So, the first obstacle is man-made, namely the refining industry, with an assist from EPA.

The second obstacle has been the auto industry – not so much in the sense that they have actively opposed higher blends but rather a combination of things ranging from lack of testing to warranty limits.

Clean Fuels Development Coalition (CFDC) is a participant on the Ag-Auto-Ethanol working group that includes the auto industry. This group has had as a longstanding goal to unite behind 25 percent blends, and more recently up to E30. What is needed is an E30 certification fuel confirming it is substantially similar to straight gasoline or E10 blends. The auto industry has been reluctant to step forward and undertake necessary tests and certification protocols, often complaining of the cost and the concern that there would not be enough ethanol to make an E30 fuel viable. The result is the ability for them to say it is not an approved fuel and it doesn’t exist.

At CFDC, we have argued that there is no legislative or regulatory language we can find that prohibits the use of an E30 ethanol blend. In fact, we argue the burden of proof would be on EPA to prove such fuels either increase emissions or degrade performance.

If EPA truly supported the effort to use higher blends of ethanol, it could take on the task of certifying E30, meaning any blend up to that amount would be approved. Hopefully that would extend to warranties, making that a non-issue.

The Department of Energy was a participant in the original E15 waiver request and tested ethanol blended fuels in volumes of 20 percent. The emissions and performance results were all positive, so the data is there. New pumps are certified for blends up to 40 percent. Combine that with the real-world test results conducted by the state of Nebraska, and the hundreds of millions of trouble-free miles from the Glacial Lakes E30 challenge and there is no reason to limit our fuel to 10 and 15 percent blends.

E85 is a different situation. While technically it is a higher blend, it is used in flex-fuel vehicles (FFVs). Unfortunately, automakers do not produce FFVs with a few very select exceptions, so that is a limited market. In contrast, E30 can be used in conventional vehicles requiring no modifications. Then it gets really exciting to think about an E40 hybrid like they are unveiling in Brazil.

The answer to finding that pathway to higher blends and forcing all these peripheral issues to be resolved is to enforce the toxics provision in the Clean Air Act (CAA).

Introduced by then Sens. Tom Daschle and Bob Dole, the provision requires EPA to reduce toxic aromatic compounds in gasoline that are the source of octane. Ethanol is a readily available, cost-effective, low carbon octane alternative that refiners have resisted because they don’t make it. If that provision was enforced, it would effectively require ethanol, and all these related issues would need to finally be resolved by EPA. READ MORE