Why I hate E85 (part 2)
In part 1 of Why I hate E85 I examined some of the background principles at work and why alcohol based fuels can actually be good. This post will be more about why I think corn-based E85 is a waste of time from a technology stand point and bad for our economy.
The cliff-hanger I left with was that flex-fuel vehicles are a not designed to be run only on a fuel with a high amount of ethanol, hence the term flex-fuel. After all that talking I did about octane ratings, compression ratios and energy extraction it should be obvious why this matters. You have to run a flex-fuel vehicle at a low compression ratio so that normal gas doesn't pre-ignite or knock. So what you get is an engine that can't extract as much work from a larger volume of fuel (richer air/fuel ratio) and that means lower miles per gallon.
It's not even better for the environment. With a non-optimal compression ratio the E85 fuel actually gives off more emissions. And despite what the advertising would like you to believe, ethanol emissions aren't that great.
But it goes deeper. Julius beat me to the punch and did a great job talking about many of the reasons why corn is a horrible choice to create ethanol. I won't bother reiterating any of those points here, just read the post yourself and ask yourself why politics is interfering with the logical choices we should be making to insure a responsible energy policy. This is the main reason why I dislike E85.
Another ridiculous fact is that often the price of E85 and gas are locked. So if gas goes up 10 cents, E85 also goes up 10 cents. Now E85 is 15% gasoline, so if it goes up 1.5 cents that would make sense. Unfortunately people are used to fuel costs going up together and so they take advantage. Everyone wants to get rich quick.
If we were selling cars with power trains designed to run only ethanol as well as creating the fuel from a source that was actually renewable (like switchgrass) then I wouldn't have to write this post. Unfortunately our current policies are half-assed attempts that are not only ineffective but might actually cause more problems.
About Naim
Naim is a 27 year old software magician, electronic musician and puzzlematician. By day he is a pro software architect and developer. By night he is the illustrious potentate of KnowLogik, a software R&D, strategy and design outfit. In his spare time he learns, writes, takes photos, and is chill.
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July 13th, 2008 - 15:15
Of course you could not make a car run on just e85 now. There is simply not enough places to fill up. So flex is a good start. If enough people buy e 85 the market place will respond with more fueling points, better production methods, and better trasportation/delivery systems. I use e85 in my 2008 chevy impala. It was a big reason I bought that make with that engine.
Speaking in terms of pure physics you are correct. The best FLEX car would have to be a turbo with an adjustable waste gate (10psi gas-18psi e85). I belive Sabb just made a car like that, so the industry is learning and evolving.
Many state the fact that E85 cant be pumped across the nation with the exsiting pipes. Lets build new ones! If we can ship a millions of gallons of oil in a big greasy boat half way around the world I am sure we could put a few hundred miles of pipes here and there.
I for one do not want to put any more money into prince ahem muhumad jehaid amer obmaa pockets then I have to. I would rather pay the farmer and have a few minor issues nto as much power as possible, cold starts, lack of fuel points. Those issues will go away with time if this e85 catches on.
July 13th, 2008 - 17:48
I probably didn’t make it as clear as I should have, but I have no real problem with E85 when it is embraced fully and intelligently. The “good start” you talk about unfortunately misinforms 90% (at least) of the consumer base and I believe causes more harm than good (see the emphasis of corn as a viable biomass source for ethanol production).
Thankfully I think through persistent education more and more people are starting to catch on to the realities of E85 and that’s good. It means that more avenues for production will be investigated and (as you said) it will hopefully catch on more and there will be more fueling points and cars actually designed to run efficiently on E85 (either designed only with E85 or E100 in mind or with an adjustable waste gate).
Good follow up though, thanks for your thoughts. I need to get around to wrapping up my thoughts on this topic in a part 3 post soon.