The Case Against Ethanol

I had an opportunity last week to put pure gasoline in my car.  It is a Nissian Altima,  2.5 liter engine and a continuous velocity transmission. The tank size is 18 gallons.  I was able to top it up with 15 gallons.  I monitor my mileage closely and had an opportunity to go from the gas station almost straight to the highway for my return trip home.  Traveling between 65 and 72 MPH, and 60 miles later, the dash indicator read my car was getting 49.3 MPG.  Similar runs in the past have topped off at 43.5 MPG.  A 13% improvement. 

I despise the "watering down" of our gasoline with ethanol.  Most of the reasons for blending our fuel, is at best, specious.  And in many cases an lie.  

The reasons why have to do energy security.  So we are not beholden to OPEC.  A secondary reason is it added to help oxygenate the fuel for a better burn.  Ethanol is considered also a cleaner burning fuel.

But the real reason is of course, the money.  Economists regard ethanol for fueling vehicles as a farm subsidiarity.  It doesn't add or subtract from the economy as a whole, it just shifts the dollars around.

Some of the numbers:

    Energy in a gallon of Gasoline:  115,000 BTUs

    Energy in a gallon of Ethanol :   75,500 BTUs

    Energy in a gallon of 90/10 blended Gasoline:  111,050 BTUs

        Energy difference, 3.5% less

    Price Barrel Oil (7/1/2023):  $70.50

    Price Barrel Ethanol (7/1/2023):  $105.84

The energy cost to create a gallon of Ethanol:  Currently, the state of the art, is at 37,000 BTU's.  But plants from an earlier era actually took more energy to create the Ethanol than you get out of it.  95,000 BTU's in 2005.  Many of those are probably still in operation.  So the goal to obtain energy independence in the 90's and 2000's was just an out and out lie.

And this is reflected in the cost.  Ethanol costs more than gasoline.  For the numbers of July 1, this adds about 5%, or 18 cents per gallon.

How much less miles per gallon do you get from adulterated gas?  The energy difference is 3.5% less, and that would imply just 3.5% less MPG's.  But how much really?  The Ethanol industry will tell you that there is zero loss in MPG's.  And any difference is due to the changes in driving style.

Which of course is utter bullshit.

This link is provided by someone who also experimented over time, and got 7% better mileage.  He logs in 10 tanks of adulterated gas against 10 tanks of pure gas.

Regarding "Cleaner burn."  While the ethanol itself burns cleaner than gasoline.  It is not cleaner if you consider the BTU's spent to create a gallon of this cleaner fuel.

Then there is the cost of burning up our ground to grow excessive amounts of corn.  Which we don't need for food.  More fertilizers and chemicals into the environment.   Between 25 and 40% of our corn acreage is for Ethanol production. 

So there you have it.  We have a fuel that costs more, has less value, and pollutes more or less the same.  

So why are we still using it?