Not so Fuelish after All: Ethanol Power on Equal Terms with Gasoline
Written by Allan Brewer · April 30, 2008
E-85 2008 Chevrolet Impala LT follows the Indy Racing League to Kansas Speedway
I recalled the words I’d heard two weeks earlier from two-time Indianapolis 500 winner and Formula 1 champion Emerson Fittipaldi as my photographer Andy and I traveled west from Indy on I-70 toward Kansas City:
“It’s a great honor to be invited by Chevrolet to drive the ethanol-powered Corvette Indianapolis pace car,” said Emmo. “I’m very proud to be part of this program. Chevrolet is trying to promote this new type of energy, a new type of fuel. I’ve been personally involved in the effort through my refinery business in Brazil. It’s a great solution for the modern world.”
“Motor racing can give the message to the world. This is a very important year to give the message of E-85.”
The words were as much a charge, a call to action, as they were a statement of Emerson Fittipaldi’s professional commitment to new sources of energy for a new world. Coming from my childhood hero they grew into importance I usually reserve for the utterances of my wife alone, as Emmo stirred my lifelong interest and my passion for cars and for racing anew.
Treading Lightly Across our Planet
I was at the wheel of a light Silverstone 2008 Chevrolet Impala LT. The 3.9 L V-6 under the hood was burning eighty-five percent ethanol/fifteen percent gasoline (E-85) as Andy and I hummed along just above the seventy mile per hour speed limit.
IndyCar drivers told me previously that they could feel no difference in power when the IRL switched to 100% fuel-grade ethanol in 2007. They felt the same torque on road courses and had the same top-end speed on ovals as before on methanol, the fuel of choice for nearly four decades of racers at Indianapolis.
The IndyCar Series was the first motorsports league to sanction a renewable fuel, racing on an ethanol blend fuel in 2006 and holding its season-opening Miami 300 with 100 percent fuel-grade ethanol in the tanks on March 29th, 2007. The American LeMans Series and A1GP World Cup of Motorsport followed suit one year later.
The aim is to improve racing’s environmental footprint worldwide and reinforce the notion of energy independence. It also provides assurance to the enthusiast that the fuel does indeed pack all the punch they want at the stoplight and for passing.
“Our decision to switch the IndyCar Series over to 100 percent fuel-grade ethanol was a reflection of our confidence in ethanol’s performance capabilities,” said Les Mactaggart, the Technical Director of the Indy Racing League. The Indy Racing League will consume nearly 120,000 gallons of fuel-grade ethanol in the 2008 season alone.
There was no quibble from me over the horsepower—plenty of oomph was ready whenever I punched the accelerator to pass on the highway. What’s more we were “instant averaging” (according to the car’s computer) 26 miles to the gallon on the E-85 fuel in long-distance interstate driving, a surprise in light of what I’d been told about ethanol’s lower mileage compared to regular unleaded gasoline.
On the Road with E-85 in the GasTank
The ethanol-powered Chevy was roomy and rode as smooth as silk across Illinois, then through St. Louis. Five hundred miles each way from Indianapolis to Kansas City and back again gave us plenty of time to settle into the car for some extended cruising to the tunes of XM satellite radio (which by the way carries the IndyCar Series races on Channel 145).
For someone who had long since left American manufacturers to become a long-term devotee of imported, particularly German, marques it came as a surprise to find this big sedan (actually about the size of a Mercedes E-class) could produce as comfortable and confident driving experience. And the thought of cruising along completely on American-made, non-Arabian petroleum-derivative, fuel was equally satisfying.
Where had this stuff been all my life?
Many American drivers are already burning the E-10 blend of ten percent ethanol, ninety percent gasoline without realizing it. Others have made the choice to switch their personal transportation to one of the many American-made vehicles that burn the E-85 blend of eighty-five percent ethanol and fifteen percent gasoline.
The fuel is not new to automotive use. The Ford Model T was designed to run on either ethanol or gasoline, making it the world’s first flex-fuel vehicle, (FFV). There are more than three million such vehicles on America’s roads today, with Chevrolet leading the way with more models to choose from than any other manufacturer.
What is new is the technology that extracts the starch from the corn kernel along with the oils and vitamins, creating ethanol as a by-product of fractionating the germ. The kernel, with its fuel-making contents removed, can then be processed into high-protein feed for livestock, and (partially) to produce steam energy for the huge plants that produce the fuel-grade substance.
Corn isn’t the only source for ethanol. Brazil produces the stuff from sugar cane, even beets. In the future cellulosic biomass (think sawdust, waste wood products, citrus, and switchgrass) will produce nearly half the anticipated output of ethanol nationwide, lessening any potential impact on food prices. The cellulosic biomass approach also uses less water (two gallons) to produce a gallon of ethanol versus 2.5 gallons to produce gasoline now.
A Surprise at the Pump
The drawback of pure fuel-grade ethanol in the tank is, theoretically, reduced gas mileage—perhaps by as much as thirty percent. The rule of thumb is 1.5 to 3 percent poorer mileage with E-10 than unleaded gasoline; and 20-25 percent less with E-85. This disadvantage is offset, however, by the price of E-85: typically fifty to sixty-five cents per gallon less than regular unleaded gasoline and sixty to eighty cents less than premium and diesel.
The plan for our road trip was quite simple and would evaluate this theoretical disadvantage directly: drive out from Indy to Kansas City on E-85, return by the same route on regular unleaded gasoline.
The designation “Flex-Fuel” doesn’t mean “ethanol only” on Chevy’s lineup of E-85 burning vehicles. It means instead that you can burn E-85 or gasoline (either regular or premium unleaded) in the car and the engine will detect which fuel you’re using, and continue operating seamlessly without any driver intervention.
Ethanol has become sufficiently accepted that finding the fuel is not a difficult task. We found blue E-85 signage posted at the bottom of the same blue signs that indicate gas, food and lodging along our route. We also picked up an E-85 and biodiesel fuel availability pamphlet in the first Illinois roadside rest area we visited. It listed all the pumps with E-85 and biodiesel by color-coordinated dots around the state.
The marketing has become sophisticated enough that some stations carry the Vera-Sun branded E-85; the product of the ethanol plant in Linden, Indiana where I’d watched the fuel being made only a few days before. And though I’d printed a list of ethanol pumps along I-70 from the internet National Ethanol Vehicle Coalition website, we found no need to refer to its lengthy six-page content to keep on rolling through the countryside.
The price of the product varies somewhat throughout the Midwest. The $3.11 per gallon E-85 I bought at the Meijer discount store pump in Fishers on Indy’s northeast side set the high-end mark of the twenty-eight gallons I purchased during the roundtrip to, and around town in, Kansas City. The cheapest per gallon price was $2.99 in Warrenton, Missouri. This compared to regular unleaded gasoline at $3.61 at the same Meijer, $3.71 for premium unleaded and $4.16 for diesel in Indianapolis.
Ethanol Breaches the Break-Even Mark
I’ll not keep you in suspense any longer: the big Chevy averaged 22.9 miles per gallon on E-85 fuel going westbound on I-70 from Indy to KC. It averaged 26.7 mpg coming back (on regular unleaded gasoline).
When you do the math that’s around fifteen percent worse mileage on ethanol.
But, hold the phone, what about the cost? Didn’t ethanol cost less than the regular unleaded gas?
Yup.
About fifteen percent less.
So there. It’s a toss-up. Your mileage is not as good with E-85 in the tank, and you stop to refuel more often because of it; but, you’re not cow-towing to the whims of an Arabian prince and you’re keeping your shekels at home instead of pouring them into the Middle East.
And it doesn’t end up costing you any more.
All things being equal, which they are, I’ll take ethanol.
Thanks to General Motors’ Chevrolet Division for the use of the 2008 Chevrolet Impala LT Flex-Fuel automobile for review; and to Tony Macrito and Phil Colley of GM; and to Cris Golan of Shows and Shoots in Detroit, MI for managing delivery and return of the E-85 Impala.
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Regarding the cost of ethanol, besides the lesser mileage, I have heard that it also costs more to produce the product, negating the proposed benefits altogether…?
Is there truth to this, that we, the general public are not totally aware of, and that this is just another way for the government to subsidize the farmers ?