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Help support AmericanEnergyIndependence.com Ethanol and Energy Independence How to get 85 miles per gallon
(of gasoline) in a Ford F150 Pickup Ford's F150 flex-fuel pickup is designed to run on either gasoline or a blend of 85% ethanol and 15% gasoline (E85). The 2008 Ford F150 flex-fuel Pickup is estimated to get 13 miles per gallon in city traffic and 18 miles per gallon on the open road, when using gasoline. When using E85, the Ford flex-fuel pickup is estimated to get 10 miles per gallon in city traffic and 13 miles per gallon on the open road. Fuel economy estimates for all cars and trucks in the USA, including flex-fuel vehicles, are given in miles per liquid gallon (MPG). If the USA is serious about reducing gasoline consumption and ending oil dependence, then the important measure should be miles per gallon of gasoline (MPGG). E85 contains only 15% gasoline per gallon of liquid fuel. Therefore, a flex-fuel vehicle, using E85, will burn one gallon of gasoline for every 6 and 2/3 gallons of E85 consumed. At 13 miles per gallon on the open road, the 2008 Ford F150 flex-fuel pickup, running on E85, will travel over 85 miles before it burns a gallon of gasoline.
E85 may have less energy content (BTU) than gasoline but Alcohol has a much higher octane. A flex-fuel engine designed to take advantage of ethanol's high octane (through higher compression ratio and optimal fuel-air mixture) will deliver improved fuel economy when using E85. For example, a high compression engine with Direct Port Injection* running on E85, can achieve Miles Per (liquid) Gallon similar to gasoline fuel economy. Flex-fuel vehicles are optimized to run on gasoline, which prevents them from taking advantage of the higher compression ratio and superior fuel-air mixture that is possible with ethanol. It is the engine design, not the fuel that causes flex-fuel vehicles to experience a 25% drop in fuel economy when running on E85. Engines can be optimized for ethanol, substantially eliminating the mileage penalty. The 25% mileage penalty only occurs when a gasoline optimized engine is run with E85. The drop in mileage can be prevented by designing the engine for ethanol use. Alcohol fuels (ethanol or methanol) can tolerate compression ratios up to 15:1 or higher (like diesel which generally uses compression ratios of around 13:1 and gets higher mileage as a result). Gasoline is restricted to compression ratios below 10:1. Gasoline engines throw off most of their power in heat losses. Ethanol’s higher octane offers engine manufacturers an opportunity to significantly improve engine efficiency with higher compression ratios that will convert more power into force that can turn the wheels, and reduce the heat losses.
*Ethanol Engine Efficiency:
Future Cost of Ethanol Fuel: Ethanol and Net Energy Some people say ethanol is a net energy loser—don’t believe it, but even if it was, so what? Popcorn sold in theaters is a net energy loser! What does “net energy loser” mean? Here is an example: did you know that it takes two gallons of oil to make one gallon of gasoline? That means for every gallon of gasoline your car burns, the U.S. will import two gallons of foreign oil… which is like saying, the amount of energy spent making a gallon of gasoline is more than twice the energy in a gallon of gasoline. Gasoline is a net energy loser. In the past, nobody really cared because there was plenty of oil, and people just wanted to fill their tanks up and drive, kind of like eating popcorn at a theater without being concerned about how much “energy” was spent cooking the popcorn. Today, we can’t just worry about how much something costs, now we are expected to also worry about how much “energy” is spent making the things we consume. So how much energy is “spent” making ethanol, and why should we care? It takes a lot of thermal energy to make ethanol from corn, but the energy does not come from oil. In general, about 25,000 Btu of energy is required to produce a gallon of ethanol. For comparison, the energy content of ethanol is about 85,000 Btu per gallon. Very little oil is consumed in the process of making ethanol. Scientists have proven that over 20 gallons of ethanol are produced for every gallon of petroleum consumed, which covers every stage related to ethanol production, including planting, growing, and harvesting the corn as well as transporting the ethanol to where consumers buy it. “Net energy analysis is fundamentally wrong: it assumes that all BTU are equivalent. This is obviously untrue; otherwise, we would not pay over ten times as much for electrical energy derived from coal as we do for the energy in the coal itself. All energy conversion systems lose some quantity of energy in order to increase energy quality. Gasoline from petroleum actually has a poorer net energy than ethanol from corn. The MOST RELEVANT measure of energy efficiency for biofuels is the liquid fuel produced per unit of PETROLEUM CONSUMED. Ethanol production systems generate OVER 20 TIMES as much liquid fuel per unit of petroleum consumed as is generated by converting that petroleum to gasoline and diesel instead.” Source: Bruce Dale, Professor of Chemical Engineering, Biomass Conversion Research Laboratory at Michigan State University. Ethanol can be compared to gasoline in that neither exists naturally; both must be produced from natural resources. And production of both types of fuel requires that energy be spent. Fortunately, for American drivers who want to see victory over America’s dependence on oil—ethanol can be produced using very little oil. People who want to discredit and discourage the use of ethanol in America often employ deceptive arguments about net energy; where they claim that ethanol production consumes more fossil fuels than can be replaced by ethanol. Attempts to discredit ethanol with the fossil fuel argument are deceptive because the argument is based on a false premise: it assumes that fossil fuel always means oil. Yes, petroleum is a fossil fuel, but not all fossil fuels are petroleum. The fossil fuel most often used for ethanol production is natural gas. About 85% of the ethanol plants in the U.S. use natural gas as a source of thermal energy. The remainder use propane, fuel oil, or coal. Newer plants are developing renewal sources of thermal energy, such as methane produced from hog or cattle manure. Geothermal energy is also being developed. Here is the important difference between gasoline and ethanol: Gasoline is made from oil, Ethanol is made from crops grown in America, primarily corn and grain sorghum (and will soon be made from cellulosic biomass like switchgrass and disposable cellulose agricultural waste like corn stover, straw and rice hulls) using non-petroleum energy to generate the process heat. U.S. transportation (cars and trucks) consume over ten million barrels of oil every day because cars and trucks burn gasoline and diesel made from oil. If America replaced 85 percent of its transportation fuel with ethanol, America could end its dependence on foreign oil. Facts on recent increases in fuel and food
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Recommended reading: Ethanol History: Help support AmericanEnergyIndependence.com |
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Copyright © 2003-2008 Ron Bengtson. Boise, Idaho USA |
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