Hi Mike,

We have a 10% blend here in CT. I am going to try to get some Politicans to get rid of it(gasohol) like we just got rid of MTBE. I'm looking for any info to support the fact that today with modern EFI engines gasohol blends are costing consumers at the pump and are not benefiting the enviorment at all.

I have a friend who is a chemist, however he is very relunctant to provide me info that may be traced to him or the company. I have a few sources, looking for more.

Any help greatly appreciated. From anyone.

Thanks John

 

Hi John,

Well, you're absolutely right in that I'm not a fan of gasohol at all, because of the lower energy (BTU) content compared to normally formulated gasoline.

In terms of giving you something you could use as "ammunition," all I can really tell you is that for the consumer, it's a matter of it delivering worse fuel economy. Now from a *performance* standpoint, gasohol is not able to support the kinds of conditions in the combustion chamber that "conventionally formulated gasoline" does - and as a tuner, that is my *first* concern, while as a "consumer," it's the poor fuel economy with no inherent price offset (reduction) to make up for it's lower MPG results. The feedback we've gotten over the years, as well as some informal numbers we saw on some of our vehicles during a brief period when we were looking at it indicates generally about 7%-10% worse fuel economy with gasohol as compared to normally formulated gasoline.

The alcohol (ethanol, methanol, etc.) portion of gasohol has anywhere from about 70% (at best) to about 50% (more typical) of the energy content (# of BTU's per gallon) as compared to normally formulated pump gasoline - and gasohol is generally 10% by volume ethanol - at least, by law it's not supposed to be any more than 10% by volume. That is what was mandated to address the corrosive aspects of alcohol, they compromised on this and said that in concentrations up to 10%, that would be OK with the automakers - so all vehicles are supposed to be able to run on gasohol, as long as the ethanol content is not more than 10% by volume. At least, as I understand it.

This is a touchy topic, with a lot of politics involved, so be prepared for a long battle and not very good prospects for success - there was a big campaign behind this some years back with the usual opportunistic politicians selling the mandated use of gasohol in some states (which still exists in some states to this day) as a measure that would significantly "help our farmers," because it takes biomass (plants - I.E., some type of "crops") to be able to make the ethanol from.

Overall, I'd say that I'd probably be your worst possible "resource" - you're a particularly knowledgeable and resourceful fellow, and a long-term hot-rodder so you already know the downside of gasohol. Also, my knowledge vastly pales in comparison to say, a chemist - and I'm not surprised that your chemist friend is reluctant to come forward publicly, as this is probably a potential career-killer for someone in his position. You may find yourself fighting the BS cries of how it would "hurt America's farmers," etc.

That's about all I can tell you, John. I don't know if that will help at all, but there it is.

Good luck with this, & let us know how this develops!

 

Since I read your post, it peaked my curiosity about gasohol. I been doing web searches and there isn’t much info that slams gasohol. All of the studies are apparently done to bolster the gasohol position. If I find any useful information, I will post it.