General Motors announces E85 support pact with National Governors Association
July 14, 2008
In Michigan, General Motors announced an agreement with the National Governors Association to expand availability of E85 ethanol. GM said that it would assist states in finding locations for E85 by analyzing its data on flex-fuel vehicle ownership, and also would help individual fuel retailers locate opportunities for state and local grants that assist in the conversion to E85.
e85 background
In Florida this month, Enterprise Rent-a-Car designated its Hallandale Beach branch as its seventh “E85/FlexFuel branch” and said that one-quarter of its cars are already flex-fuel enabled. The other branches are in Washington, D.C.; Charlotte, N.C.; Sioux Falls, S.D.; Grapevine, Texas; and Cincinnati, Columbus and Dayton, Ohio. The announcement coincided with the launch of E85 at a U-Gas facility in Hallandale Beach, which celebrated the launch with an $1.85 eE85 promotion.
In recent weeks, Florida Gov. Charlie Crist announced that E85 would become available at three stations along the Florida’s Turnpike system. The first E85 pumps, at Turkey Lake Service Plaza, will open this week, while service plaza at Port St. Lucie/Ft. Pierce and Pompano will add E85 in August. Prior to the launch of E85 along the Turnpike, the 500,000 flex-fuel cars in Florida could only obtain E85 fuel in Miami or Tallahassee. The $1.5 million Turnpike cooperative initiative with Martin Petroleum will make it possible to travel the length of the system, and Florida, on E85.
e85prices.com publisher Dan McCullough said that the 10-30 percent loss in mileage with E85 stems from flex-fuel engines that are optimized for gasoline, and said that by installing higher-flow fuel injectors that drivers could improve their e85 mileage by up to 20 percent.
Researchers are indicating that E85 can achieve the same or better fuel economy than conventional gasoline with cars featuring high compression engine (between 11 and 14:1), a $32 spark plug upgrade, a $55 change in air filters and a fuel filter replacement. “Believe it or not, high-compression engines of the late ’60s, with compression ratios up to 12.5:1, had higher thermal efficiencies that many of today’s engines,” says tprmag.com.
Compressions were lowered in the late 1960s when lead was removed from gasoline because 87-93 octane fuels cannot handle higher compressions , but 105-octane rated ethanol achieves its best results at 60s style compression ratios. Aside from wasting up to 20% in fuel costs for drivers, reduced fuel economy is one of the primary barriers to entry for E85.
AAA is reporting the effective cost per mile of E85 is 8 percent higher than the cost per mile for gasoline. Though E85 sells for 18 percent less than gasoline, AA is factoring a 32 percent loss of mileage into its estimates.
A new cost-benefit analysis by researcher John Graham at the Pardee Rand Graduate School found that E85 scored the worst among all fuel options. Diesels performed the best, saving $2300 over a vehicle’s lifetime compared to regular gasoline. Hybrids were a close second, while E85 cost $1600 for fuel over vehicle lifespan. The study’s authors did not disclose the mileage standards used in the study, or the vehicles studied.
The American Coalition on Ethanol presented findings on research showing that cars running on E20 and E30 blends achieved better mileage than cars running 100 percent conventional gasoline. Scientists at General Motors, whose cars were involved in the test, were unable to explain how the ethanol blend, which contained 6 to 11 percent less BTUs, could get better mileage. In the tests, a Chevrolet Impala flex-fuel vehicle running E20 achieved 15 percent better mileage than when running 100 percent gasoline. Tests were also conducted on Toyota vehicles.
In Michigan, General Motors has completed a demonstration vehicle that uses HCCI “Homogeneous Charge Compression Ignition” a diesel-like compression technology in a gasoline engine. The hybrid technology, which switches between ignition and compression, promises to increase gasoline fuel efficiency by at least 15 percent because of the higher efficiency of compression.
However, the lower temperature limits the creation of NOx compounds that cause air pollution. The technology works with flex-fuel engine technology as well, promising the possibility of E85 almost at parity with conventional gasoline in terms of fuel efficiency, and reducing or eliminating NOx emissions.
In Wisconsin, Drive Flex Fuel is now marketing self-installable E85 conversion kits. The company makes kits for cars, trucks, boats and all-terrain vehicles, and are sold through the www.driveflexfuel,com website, with prices ranging from $269 to $699 depending on vehicle type.
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