When it was introduced in the 1980s, people called it “gasohol.” Though that term endures, current names include oxygenated fuel or reformulated gasoline. But what is reformulated gasoline and how does it affect car performance?
Some of America’s largest cities, including Chicago, suffered from high levels of carbon monoxide pollution in the winter because the air is denser than in the warmer months. Adding oxygen helps gasoline complete its combustion in the engine, thus reducing CO at the tailpipe.
Under the Clean Air Act of 1990, an expanded oxygenated fuel program was tested in 26 larger cites in the winter of 1992-93. As a result, the Environmental Protection Agency said the number of days with high CO levels dropped by 95 percent.
The 10 metropolitan areas with the worst ozone pollution–Baltimore; Chicago (and Gary); Hartford, Conn.; Houston-Galveston, Texas; Los Angeles; Milwaukee-Racine; New York area; Philadelphia; San Diego; and Sacramento, Calif. –have been required to use oxygenated fuels year-round beginning in 1995.
Others areas may opt into the program, and 17 states plus Washington D.C. have joined the Reformulate Gasoline program.
As the term says, oxygenated gasoline contains oxygen compounds (oxygenates) that supplement the oxygen in the air to help complete the combustion.
The popular oxygenates are methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE) and ethanol.
Isobutylene is the feedstock from which MTBE is made, and it is derived from natural gas or as a byproduct of oil refining. Ethanol comes from corn.
As higher compression engines started being built in the 1920s, something was needed to keep the engines from pinging and knocking due to the low-octane of the fuel. Lead did the trick but it was found to be a health hazard. MTBE was developed to increase octane (the anti-knock properties of gasoline) in the 1970s as leaded gas was being phased out.
Ethanol also can increase octane. Neat (straight) ethanol has an octane rating of 110. As a motor fuel enhancement, up to 10 percent is blended into gasoline.
But gallon for gallon ethanol contains less energy, measured in British thermal units (Btu), than gasoline. With gasohol, you get fewer miles per gallon–about 2 to 4 percent less, according to many authorities.
That it the price we pay for improving the environment.
When ethanol is used as the primary fuel, it is blended with 15 percent gasoline, to give flames a yellow glow should the fuel catch fire. It’s a safety thing. Pure alcohols burn with no color and are virtually invisible. The fuel is called E85, denoting that it is 85 percent ethanol. You can find some stations selling it in our area, but Minnesota has the most. Unless you know that your car is designed to run on E85, according to your owner’s manual, don’t use it.
Ethanol also works in many of today’s “flexible fuel” vehicles. For instance, all model year 2002 Ford Tauruses with a 3-liter V-6 will run on gasoline or E85. The same goes for all Chrysler minivans with a 3.3-liter V-6. Ditto for the GMC Yukon and Chevrolet Tahoe and Suburban with a 5.3-liter V-8 from GM. But that Tahoe running on gasoline will get 340 miles to a tank and 290 miles to a tank of E85, about 15 percent less.
Besides improving the environment, ethanol is renewable, reducing our dependence on foreign oil. It burns cleaner in the engine, reducing deposits. It helps the farm industry in the Midwest, where corn is king.
But, it takes more energy to produce ethanol than it provides the motoring public. All in all, there is a net energy loss. It is also expensive to produce. If the ethanol industry were not subsidized by the federal government, it would be prohibitively costly as a motor fuel.
As it stands now, according to the AAA-Chicago Motor Club, the cost of a gallon of regular unleaded in the six-county Chicago region, the price of a gallon of regular unleaded with ethanol was $1.14 on Thursday, compared to $1.14 for a gallon of regular unleaded in Miami–and Florida does not use ethanol in its gas according to AAA-Chicago Motor Club.
Further, according to the American Petroleum Institute, where regulations do not interfere with competition, the consumer prices should be equivalent to those of gasoline with or without ethanol.Despite the bad rap ethanol got in the 1980s, and the bad taste it has left in the mouths of those who had car trouble, carmakers have overcome the problems ethanol created. Ethanol was damaging the elstomers in rubber parts and there were problems with fuels pumps carburetors and fuel hoses. MTBE, on the other hand, has literally left a bad taste in many people’s mouths as it has contaminated drinking water, is suspected of causing cancer and has been banned in Canada for some years.
Now, MTBE has been banned in Illinois. Gov. George Ryan signed HB171 on July 24, and the ban goes takes on July 24, 2004. This ban will have only a minor effect because MTBE is only in some premium-grade gasoline in downstate areas.
Incidentally, ethanol is the only alcohol that generally is not poisonous to humans. It is the alcohol in our beer, wine and tequila. So let us toast the byproduct of corn and sugar fermentation. But not until we park our cars.
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Bob Weber is an ASE-certified Master Automobile Technician, having recertified every five years since 1978. Contact him at MMTribune@netscape.net.
