Ethanol gas (food for thought)

H

hrdman2luv

Well-Known Member
A friend was mine told me the other day that super unleaded had less ethanol in it than regular. This is something I'd never even thought about. But when I stopped at the gas station later that day, I noticed the ethanol sign (10% or less ethanol) was the only thing mentioned on the pump. In other words, it didn't say "10% for regular, less for premium and even less for super. There was just the one sign that covered all three.
So I came home and did a little research. (and I mean a very little) but couldn't find anything.

So today, I found a gas tanker unloading at the little store down the road. I stopped and asked him. He said that all three have the same amount of ethanol in them. That 10% (ish) is the government standard. Different companies have different blends and additives. But they all have at least 10% ethanol.

BTW, how much are you guys paying for non-ethanol gas?
 
hrdman2luv said:
A friend was mine told me the other day that super unleaded had less ethanol in it than regular. This is something I'd never even thought about. But when I stopped at the gas station later that day, I noticed the ethanol sign (10% or less ethanol) was the only thing mentioned on the pump. In other words, it didn't say "10% for regular, less for premium and even less for super. There was just the one sign that covered all three.
So I came home and did a little research. (and I mean a very little) but couldn't find anything.

So today, I found a gas tanker unloading at the little store down the road. I stopped and asked him. He said that all three have the same amount of ethanol in them. That 10% (ish) is the government standard. Different companies have different blends and additives. But they all have at least 10% ethanol.

BTW, how much are you guys paying for non-ethanol gas?
Click to expand...

10% ethanol gas, referred to as E10 is an EPA standard. (Hopefully this doesn't lead to an EPA debate.) It means the gasoline contains approximately but no more than 10% ethanol and 90% or more gasoline. Approx. 97% of the gasoline sold in the USA is E10. E10 is available for all octanes. Interestingly, ethanol is a higher octane than gasoline so an 87 octane blend is actually created with less than 87 octane gasoline and over 87 octane ethanol.

Non-ethanol gasoline is sold in some gas stations but is available primarily in gallon or smaller sizes.

Fresh E10 is not harmful to fairly new vehicles and small engines but can be harmful to older ones. The biggest potential problem with ethanol is in small engines like lawn mowers that aren't used frequently. Over time, the ethanol separates from the gasoline in a process called phase separation. Phase separation can cause major damage to a small engine particularly during or after storage, which is why best practices exist.
 
I'm in farming country, so 100% NON-corn gas is readily available. That's all I will use.

Price is currently @ $2.03 gal for 87, & $2.43 for 93 octane NON -corn blend.
 
TonyPrin said:
10% ethanol gas, referred to as E10 is an EPA standard. (Hopefully this doesn't lead to an EPA debate.) It means the gasoline contains approximately but no more than 10% ethanol and 90% or more gasoline. Approx. 97% of the gasoline sold in the USA is E10. E10 is available for all octanes. Interestingly, ethanol is a higher octane than gasoline so an 87 octane blend is actually created with less than 87 octane gasoline and over 87 octane ethanol.

Non-ethanol gasoline is sold in some gas stations but is available primarily in gallon or smaller sizes.

Fresh E10 is not harmful to fairly new vehicles and small engines but can be harmful to older ones. The biggest potential problem with ethanol is in small engines like lawn mowers that aren't used frequently. Over time, the ethanol separates from the gasoline in a process called phase separation. Phase separation can cause major damage to a small engine particularly during or after storage, which is why best practices exist.
Click to expand...

Here is another person writing published articles that is confusing Octane with BTU.

http://zfacts.com/p/436.html
 
SeniorCitizen said:
Here is another person writing published articles that is confusing Octane with BTU.

http://zfacts.com/p/436.html
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There is nothing I said that is either incorrect or taken from an article. Those are my words and I don't like the insinuation that I can't contribute something without assistance. Senior Citizen, you didn't add anything to the discussion beyond copying a link yourself and trying to insult me. Pretty small. Either prove what you said or apologize for insinuating I plagiarized.

Beyond that, my comments were correct and referred to octane, not BTUs. Rather, octane refers to the compression a fuel can withstand before it ignites while BTU relates to heat. BTUs have nothing to do with the discussion except to confuse easily confusable people like Senior Citizen.

Ethanol has a USA/Canada octane rating of 99, compared to a typical regular gasoline octane of 87. Thus, assuming 10% ethanol in a gallon of regular, the remaining .9 gallon gasoline would have an octane rating of only 85, for a weighted average of 87 - which is what I said:

Interestingly, ethanol is a higher octane than gasoline so an 87 octane blend is actually created with less than 87 octane gasoline and over 87 octane ethanol.
Click to expand...

Of course gasoline is manmade from refined petroleum so it can have a range of octanes and anyone who ever bought gas at a pump knows that. However, my comments related to "regular" 87 octane gas as we're discussing lawn mowers.

Finally, I challenge Senior Citizen or anyone else to find where I copied my words from anywhere, which isn't possible because I didn't, or for anyone to disprove anything I said, because you can't.
 
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I'm paying $27.50 for non-ethanol 50:1 premix in 1 gallon cans from my equipment dealer. I started out just using it in my chain saws but am now using it in all of my seldom-used handheld equipment, which I have quite a lot of. I burn 93 octane E10 in everything else.
 
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