10% ethanol

The Ethanol which is added is anhydrous. However you are correct in that it can absorb moisture and keep it in solution, up to a point.

The other issue about Ethanol in fuel is that it has a lower calorific value than hydrocarbons. This means that you can expect an increase in fuel consumption of about 2% when using a 10% Ethanol blend. On the other hand the extra Oxygen in Ethanol helps reduce exhaust emissions of some types. There is more to making a satisfactory Ethanol/petrol blend than just adding Ethanol. The additives and hydrocarbon blend of the base petrol need to be optimised also
Phil

Phil

Cupla things here-
Ethanol is very hydrophillic, and when produced thru normal distillation, it still contains no less than about 7% water; ie, the max purity obtainable is about 93% - trickier means are used to remove the last of the water to make pure alcohol. I guess this means that it would make your fuel also an attractant to water?

I recall an article a few years ago on Brazil's "success story" of using ethanol, produced from cane sugar, in cars. Only thing was that to make the ethanol cheap enough, they had to employ a sub-strata of extremely low-paid workers to make the whole business viable. In addition, valuable food-producing land, plus deforestation for more land was being taken up just to run cars.
Gerry

Not detracting at all from any of the points made in the previous replies, I'm pretty sure that "metho" is Methanol CH4O. Ethanol is also the alcohol found in beer, wine etc.. and is a larger molecule C2H6O. I SUSPECT that ethanol and methanol have different water dispersing properties when added to other fuels.

Cheers
Stephen J.Don't die wondering !!

A lot of high performance race cars have water injection systems. Have a think about that!
Other countries have been using a methanol mixture for years, its the oil company's who are not pushing it as they will lose money.

I thought the water injection was to increase the oxygen content and therefore the amount of bang. So wouldn't water/metho/fuel give better performance?

Hi all,

I am engineer who has contributed to an extensive and ongoing assessment of the use of Ethanol blended fuels in a variety of engines and vehicles commonly found in the Australian market place. I am not at liberty to discuss our findings, however the attached links take you to the Federal Goverment's Environment Australia site, providing a good overview of the Ethanol issue, and links to a number of reports we have authored which are now in the public domain.

I hope this proves useful to those with interest. Happy reading.

Regards,
Hugh

In contrast, ethanol adds oxygen to the fuel burn making petrol and diesel burn more efficiently and cleaner, with reduced particle emissions, especially fine particle emissions, and substantially reduced carbon dioxide and harmful carbon monoxide emissions.

Generally, for each 10 per cent ethanol added to fuel particle emissions reduce by 10 per cent. If ethanol were mandated for fuel, replacing other harmful additives, it would have major health benefits for the community and savings on health budgets.

So why have the petroleum and motor vehicle companies run a media campaign against ethanol claiming it damages some engines?

Their campaign has come at the same time as the Federal government has been considering mandating ethanol in fuel. Clearly, if the government mandated say 10 per cent ethanol in fuel it would mean the oil companies would lose 10 per cent of the fuel market to ethanol producers.

Yet in the US, the same car companies are recommending ethanol for many of their vehicles. Two papers citing 22 car companies and 12 small engine producers recommending ethanol for their engines can be found at www.iowacorn.org/amro.htm and www.iowacorn.org/semr.htm.

In Brazil cars run on up to 85 per cent ethanol, and some of these cars are produced in Australia.

Car companies accept that up to 10 per cent ethanol in fuel requires no engine modifications, while over 10 per cent requires engine timing and minor component changes.