Calibrate your BS detectors!

From motortrend.com:

SIOUX FALLS, S.D., Dec. 5 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — Research findings released today show that mid-range ethanol blends–fuel mixtures with more ethanol than E10 but less than E85–can in some cases provide better fuel economy than regular unleaded gasoline, even in standard, non-flex-fuel vehicles.

Previous assumptions held that ethanol’s lower energy content directly correlates with lower fuel economy for drivers. Those assumptions were found to be incorrect. Instead, the new research strongly suggests that there is an “optimal blend level” of ethanol and gasoline–most likely E20 or E30–at which cars will get better mileage than predicted based strictly on the fuel’s per-gallon Btu content. The new study, cosponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy and the American Coalition for Ethanol (ACE), also found that mid-range ethanol blends reduce harmful tailpipe emissions.

Whoa, time out! The American Coalition for what? For Ethanol? What a relief to find that one of the co-sponsors of the study has no axe to grind. As for the other co-sponsor, DOE, wasn’t that the agency of the federal government that has been hyping the use of ethanol as a motor fuel for years?

Excuse me, my BS detector is in the red zone…

You don’t have to be a node on the Psychic Friends Network to see what’s behind this new PR offensive by the ethanol lobby and its bought-and-paid-for politicians. Recent news reports of the spike in food prices and the rising number of the world’s hungry have put Big Ethanol in a bad light. The short-sightedness of the rush to use ethanol as a motor fuel is being exposed, and the folks who were making out like bandits over the diversion of corn from food crop to fuel crop are worried - very worried.

Notice that the news release pushes the idea of E20 and E30 as “optimal” blends of ethanol and gasoline. This is important for several reasons. First and formost among them is the fact that Big Ethanol has taken a fallback position. Things are looking so bleak for them that they are no longer touting E85 as the energy savior of the world. They are seriously trying to cut their future losses here. They realize that the amount of ethanol in a gallon of gasoline needed to replace MTBE as an additive to oxygenate gasoline (as mandated by Congress) is less than 4% or 5%. E10 is the traditional “gasohol” mixure of 10% ethanol in every gallon of gasoline, and they are afraid that when E85 is abandoned - and it will be abandoned soon - we will settle on E10 as the standard blend. So now they are promoting stronger doses of their bad medicine - two times and three times the amound of ethanol than in E10 as that which is “optimal” for todays cars. Their proof? Read on…

The University of North Dakota Energy & Environmental Research Center (EERC) and the Minnesota Center for Automotive Research (MnCAR) conducted the research using four 2007 model vehicles: a Toyota Camry, a Ford Fusion and two Chevrolet Impalas, one flex-fuel and one non-flex-fuel. Researchers used the EPA Highway Fuel Economy Test (HWFET) to examine a range of ethanol-gasoline blends from straight Tier 2 gasoline up to 85 percent ethanol. All of the vehicles got better mileage with ethanol blends than the ethanol’s energy content would predict, and three out of four actually traveled farther on a mid-level ethanol blend than on unleaded gasoline.

So, “researchers” at state universities in two of the corn-growingest states in the union found that cars which are specifically tuned for ethanol perform better in economy tests on ethanol than they do on gasoline. Well, duh! Cars actually perform better on the fuel they are tuned for than on the fuel they are not tuned for. What a shocker!

Expect much more of the same kind of bogus “studies” like this one in the near future. Meanwhile, real research is showing some promising new technologies are moving forward which can, among other things, lead to producing “green” gasoline directly from cellulose. No conversion to ethanol needed, thank you very much. This has Big Ag beside itself. After all, states where food crops don’t grow without intensive inputs of fertilizers, pesticides and, yes, energy, can grow switchgrass without much trouble. Along with weeds, chips from scrap wood and other cellulosic “wastes” are perfect feedstocks for these emerging processes.

Big Ag is afraid that it will soon be reduced to doing what it has bragged about doing in its past TV commercials - feeding a hungry world. There’s not as much quick profit to be made there than in producing a fuel feedstock which is an inefficient use of time, land, chemicals and farm fuel. Especially if ADM and other big farmers have to go back to producing more food, thus increasing the supply and driving down prices.

Big Ag is even more afraid of losing its generous federal government subsidies for growing corn for fuel. Many are now questioning the “wisdom” of such a counterproductive waste of the taxpayers’ money. They are also questioning the practice of such protectionist measures as high tariffs on the importation of ethanol from Brazil and other parts of the world.

E10 solves the MTBE problem with more ethanol than is needed for the task. Fine. Let them have their 10%, but this and no more.

- JP