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This is a question which is currently in debate between the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the automotive industry. Currently the standard for ethanol blend gasoline is 10 percent. This is the percentage that vehicles currently in production today are being manufactured to run in their fuel line, and are being warranted as such. So if you ask an automotive manufacturer just how much ethanol a regular gasoline engine can handle, they will tell you 10 percent and no more.
Now, there are other interest groups that have tested these vehicles with much higher blends and have petitioned that these vehicles can handle as much as 20 percent ethanol without any problems developing. The problems that can arise with high blends of ethanol, are corrosion in the fuel systems that were not designed for use with ethanol biofuel. A vehicle needs to be manufactured with special components in order to run the E85 blend gasoline (85 percent ethanol). Auto manufactures do not want to be held responsible for fuel use beyond their manufactured standards.
Ethanol vs. Warranty
The Department of Energy has undergone studies on various ethanol blends in current vehicles being manufactured today, reporting that "no operability or driveability issues" were found when 20 percent ethanol blends where used. There are currently fuel stations that have the ability to mix the E85 blend with the standard E10 unleaded to create mixtures of E15 or E20 intermediate gasoline blends. Pretty cool, but the problem is that only E85 vehicles are warrantied and legally designated to use a fuel blend of anything over 10 percent.
So the issue has become not so much what is the limit of ethanol deemed safe for a vehicle's use, but whether or not the consumer is willing to take the chance of having problems with their vehicle, only to find out it is no longer covered on warranty due to their use of a higher blend of ethanol. The EPA has until December 1st of 2009 to decide what they are going to do about this situation, so for now it recommended to stay with the E10 blend if your vehicle is still under warranty.
For those whose warranty is no longer effective, it has been shown that blends of 15 to 20 percent are just as safe to use in a vehicle as the E10. The benefits to switching to a higher ethanol blend are a reduction in your greenhouse emissions, help local farmers by supporting corn prices, and reducing foreign oil dependency. E20 may not be as good as switching to an electric vehicle or hybrid, but if you don't have the money to make that swap just yet, this might be the next best thing.
Source: The Wall Street Journal
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