In our current gasoline optimized engines, ethanol will have lower mileage but with higher horsepower.
For example, GM rated their 5.3L pickup at a clean 380 horsepower on E85 vs a dirty 355 horsepower on E0.
web.archive.org/web/2016111110…
That is a gasoline optimized vehicle hence the loss of mileage. Ethanol optimized engines achieve both higher mileage and power than gasoline engines, even higher than diesel engines seen below.
Here is the EPA loss of mileage in our current fleet of E0 vs E10 vs E15.
fueleconomy.gov/feg/ethanol.sh…
The world's most selling vehicle is the Ford F-150 pickup which gets an EPA rated 21 mpg on E0 and 16 on E85.
fueleconomy.gov/feg/Find.do?ac…
The EPA as you saw states E10 lowers mileage by 3 to 4% and E15 by 4 to 5%.
Prices from E85prices.com
E0 = $4.62/gallon @ 21 mpg = $.22 cost per mile
E10 = $3.92/gallon @ 20.16mpg = $.194 cost per mile
E15 = $3.59/gallon @ 19.74 mpg = $.182 cost per mile
E85 = $2.85/gallon @ 16 mpg =$.178 cost per mile
Ford's prototype EcoBoost engine was optimized for E85 and achieved 15 to 20% greater mpg than E0 with load performance similar to a diesel.
www1.eere.energy.gov/vehiclesandfue…
They didn't come out with it in flex fuel in part because they thought they could skirt paying for the patents to the MIT scientists who designed it. That was still in court last I heard.
Ricardo some years ago built and drove around an ethanol optimized engine for GM which had more mpg and power than their diesel engine at half the size.
FROM RICARDO:
The new federal CAFE standards are calling for a doubling of fuel mileage performance, which, Vint says, is going to send OEM’s looking for high octane numbers to improve efficiency and ethanol is the best source. Ricardo, an engineering firm with over 100 years in the business of engine design, has developed an extreme boosted direct injection engine (EBDI) to optimize ethanol blends. The 3.2 V6 gasoline engine rivals the power and torque of a much larger GMC Sierra 6.6 diesel, he said, and it delivers 3.5 percent better fuel economy than the diesel.
Scania has sold an ethanol engine for years worldwide with power and fuel economy on par with their diesel engines:
scania.com/group/en/home/…
This is not new technology or knowledge, it was known long ago. It is suppressed technology.
Rear Admiral C.M. Chester wrote Henry Ford a letter on Dec.15, 1916:
"...I also pointed out in the article that as governmental laboratories had developed from 40 to 55% efficiency in alcohol engines as against 20% in gasoline machines, the use of alcohol at double the cost of gasoline for power purposes, was cheaper for motor[s] than gasoline in common use today."
Scientific journals from 1890 – 1920 contain hundreds of references to alcohol fuel at the dawn of the automotive era.
Studies of alcohol as an internal combustion engine fuel began in the U.S. with the Edison
Electric Testing Laboratory and Columbia University in 1906. Elihu Thomson reported that despite a smaller heat or B.T.U. value, “a gallon of alcohol will develop substantially the same power in an internal combustion engine as a gallon of gasoline. This is owing to the superior efficiency of operation…”
The USDA tests in 1906 also demonstrated the efficiency of alcohol in engines and described how gasoline engines could be modified for higher power with pure alcohol fuel or for equivalent fuel consumption, depending on the need.
The U.S.Geological Service and the U.S. Navy performed 2000 tests on alcohol and gasoline engines in 1907 - 1908 in Norfolk, Va. and St. Louis, Mo. They found that much higher engine compression ratios could be achieved with alcohol than with gasoline.
When the compression ratios were adjusted for each fuel, fuel economy was virtually equal despite the greater B.T.U. value of gasoline. “In regard to general cleanliness, such as absence of smoke and disagreeable odors, alcohol has many advantages over gasoline or kerosene as a fuel,” the report said. “The exhaust from an alcohol engine is never clouded with a black or grayish smoke.” USGS continued the comparative tests and later noted that alcohol was “a more ideal fuel than gasoline” with better efficiency despite the (*then*) high cost.
archive.org/details/CAT872…
We could and should refine natural gas, coal, and oil into ethanol with an efficient and economical process China, Indonesia, India, and others are using and/or looking at from a Texas company named Celanese with their TCX Technology.
With enough ethanol we could have those pollution free hyper efficient E100 ethanol engines half the size/twice the power.
Imagine cities with clean air to breathe.
Even at low levels, ethanol cleans up a fair share of gasoline's dirty, carcinogenic, and toxic pollution.
Denver in 1988 was the first government entity to require E10 when they were on the EPA list of ozone non-attainment zones. Soon with ethanol they were off that list.
Even with just 10% ethanol added to E0, the Swiss Federal Laboratory for Materials Science and Technology found that the especially health devastating ultra fine or nano particulate emissions were lowered by 97%, carbon monoxide lowered by 81%, carbon dioxide lowered by 13%, aromatic hydrocarbon emissions lowered by 67-96%, and genotoxic emissions lowered by 72%.
English
