E85, E10, E15, E30

E85, E10 

An E85 engine is a gasoline engine with some parts changed to be non-corrosive to ethanol.  Since ethanol contains less energy per gallon, burning it in a standard gasoline engine results in very poor mileage -- 75% of that of gasoline.

 If you go 300 miles on a  tank of gasoline, and fill it with E85, you will only go 225 miles. For every 3 stops to fill-up with gasoline, the driver will have to stop 4 times if running E85.

Consumers did not  like this, and, as a consequence decided not  to buy E85 vehicles.

In response, the auto industry stopped making FFV vehicles. In model year 2015, there were 98 FFV vehicles available. In model year 2024, only 7 are being offered, mostly holdovers of large pickups, and even those require a long order wait and several hundred dollars as an option.

For the record, in 2023, ~14.2 billion gallons of fuel grade ethanol were used in the US(EIA MER Table 10.3, 5/28/24).  Of this,  only ~2%, 295 million gallons (AEO, 3/16/2023. Table 17) went into E85. 

The process is that the ethanol producer ships the ethanol to the oil company blender who blends it with  gasoline to make either E10 or E85.  

This system means that the oil companies control the price of E85 just like they control the price of gasoline.  The ethanol industry does not control the price of its product to the final consumer.  

This is why, as of December 2022, there are only 5,634 E85 stations in the US (E85Prices.com), not because of any distribution problems.

Another way to look at this is: If E85 offered the same mileage as gasoline, we would have switched over to it long ago since it costs less per gallon, and motor fuel is a very price sensitive product. 

E15, E20, E30 

There is a lot of effort being given to intermediate blends such as E15, E20, and E30 and the EPA  has approved the sale of E15 for certain model year vehicles and roughly 2,400 stations in the U.S. as of June 2022 2022 are selling it. 

There is a good case for E15 in that it would immediately help the ethanol industry which is having trouble growing due to the informal blend limit of 10% ethanol.

However, there is a real dispute about potential problems with storage tanks, piping, and pumps. Also, there is no requirement that E15 actually be used and even if it comes into use, it cannot make us independent of imported oil or significantly lower CO2 emissions. 

Beyond that level, trying to go to E20 or E30, there are problems:

1. the oil companies will still control the price of the fuel, 

2. it is a lot of work to do it, 

3. the same amount of money will have to be spent to   

    convert dispensers and tanks to the higher levels of ethanol 

    as we would spend to convert to E100, and,

4. last, but not least, if a terrorist group send a bomb or plane 

     into Abqaiq or Ras Tanura, we have skyrocketing fuel prices 

     again with all the attendant problems.