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Fuels' Gold

Tribune photo by JULIE BUSCH

Robert Powell, driver for Energy Dispatch, watches as he fills his truck with an ethanol and gasoline blend at Marathon Petroleum Company in Tampa.

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By RUSSELL RAY, The Tampa Tribune

Published: February 9, 2008

When ethanol-blended gasoline started turning up at gas stations in the Tampa Bay area last year, Fred Richardson had a flash from the past.

The last time the Tampa man filled his tank with ethanol, Ronald Reagan was president and David Letterman was a neophyte to late-night TV. It was the early 1980s, and some gas stations were beginning to offer corn ethanol, a cleaner-burning fuel.

But back then, not every car was built to handle ethanol, a highly corrosive alcohol. Ethanol was blamed for gumming up carburetors, corroding fuel lines and ruining engines. Richardson said ethanol annihilated his old Subaru.

"I used it for a year or less, and I destroyed a factory carburetor," he said.

Nearly 30 years later, ethanol is back at your corner gas station.

In Central Florida, more than 100 gas stations are selling E10, a blend of 10 percent ethanol and 90 percent gasoline. Consumers are demanding it, and Congress has mandated the use of more ethanol-blended fuel. Some of today's vehicles are equipped to handle large amounts of ethanol, and the rest can run on gasoline containing up to 10 percent ethanol. But experts say ethanol-blended fuels can still damage your ride if they're not handled properly.

So which ethanol blend is right for your car?

Most vehicles made after 1970 are built to withstand a 10 percent ethanol blend. Gasoline containing more than 10 percent ethanol will work only in "flexible-fuel" vehicles, which are equipped with stainless-steel tanks, Teflon-coated fuel lines and sensors that track the ratio of ethanol to gasoline.

Using E85, a blend of 85 percent ethanol and 15 percent gasoline, in a vehicle not equipped to handle large amounts of ethanol will harm the engine. That's because ethanol is a solvent. It can loosen sludge, varnish and dirt inside the gas tank, causing fuel lines and carburetors to clog.

E10's Speedy Rise

There are only two stations in Florida where E85 is available to the general public - one in Tallahassee and the other in Miami.

Meanwhile, the number of stations selling E10 in Florida is growing at breakneck speed.

Hess Corp. has been selling ethanol-blended gas at all 75 of its retail outlets in the Bay area since November. By April, Hess expects to have ethanol blends at all 375 locations statewide.

"It just reflects the growing interest we're seeing from both government officials and customers for fuel that's renewable and can be produced in the U.S.," Hess spokeswoman Lorrie Hecker said.

What's more, E10 has been deemed safe to use in all vehicles sold in the United States, including gasoline-electric hybrids, Hecker said.

"The Department of Transportation says that all automakers have approved the use of low-level ethanol blends because they don't have a noticeable difference on vehicle performance," she said.

Murphy USA, the retail arm of Arkansas-based Murphy Oil Corp., has been selling E10 at stations in Central Florida since the end of May. The blend is available at more than half of Murphy's 83 Florida outlets.

Marathon Oil Corp., the largest provider of ethanol-blended fuel in the Midwest, began offering E10 to its Florida customers late last month. The Houston-based company spent millions to add ethanol storage and blending equipment at fuel distribution terminals in Tampa and Fort Lauderdale.

Marathon expects the market for ethanol-blended fuel will develop quickly in Florida. Dan Moenter, Marathon's government affairs manager in Florida, pointed to the company's distribution terminal in South Carolina, which began providing E10 in July. By December, the blend accounted for 40 percent of the terminal's fuel sales, Moenter said.

"We expect there to be widespread acceptance of ethanol blends," he said. "We will have it available in all of our markets, from Canada to the tip of Florida, by the middle of this year."

Billed as an environmentally friendly substitute for gasoline, ethanol is an alternative that many think can help wean America off imported oil. It's cleaner burning, renewable and it's made from domestic grains.

Under the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007, 9 billion gallons of ethanol must be blended with gasoline this year, up from 4.7 billion in 2007. By 2022, petroleum companies are required to blend 36 billion gallons of biofuels such as ethanol with gasoline and diesel, replacing 25 percent of the nation's petroleum consumption.

Water Worries

Motorists should still be wary about using ethanol-blended fuels.

That's because ethanol prefers water over gasoline. If water is present in either the tank at the gas station or the tank in your car, the ethanol will separate from the gasoline and bond with the water.

That means motorists could end up pumping a mixture of ethanol and water into their car. If that happens, the car could stall. What's more, if the car isn't equipped to withstand large amounts of ethanol, it could hurt the engine.

"It can be corrosive to certain materials," said Moenter, the government affairs manager at Marathon.

That's why it's vital that gas stations remove all the water from their tanks before receiving a load of ethanol-blended fuel, Moenter said.

"There's always some condensation," Moenter said. "One reason it takes a while for a market to grow for ethanol is service station operators have to make sure their tanks are clean and dry."

Also, ethanol doesn't have as much punch as gasoline, a very dense source of energy.

Ethanol has 30 percent less energy content than gasoline. According to the U.S. Department of Energy, it takes 1.4 gallons of E85 to match the energy content of a gallon of gasoline. The use of E85 can thus cause a 10 percent to 25 percent drop in gas mileage.

E10, however, won't cause a meaningful drop in fuel economy because the level of ethanol is so low.

Because ethanol has 30 percent less energy than gasoline, it is priced about 30 cents lower. E10 is about 10 cents cheaper than regular gasoline.

Emissions from E85 are 39 percent to 46 percent lower than emissions from gasoline, according to the National Ethanol Vehicle Coalition.

Richardson, the retired school teacher who blames ethanol for destroying his beloved Subaru years ago, has decided to give ethanol a second chance.

He now drives a Toyota Camry hybrid. The energy-efficient car will get its first taste of E10 this week, he said.

Reporter Russell Ray can be reached at (813) 259-7870 or rray@tampatrib.com.

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