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E85 is a fuel comprised of a mix of corn ethanol and gasoline. The 85 in E85 represents the percentage of ethanol over gasoline, in this case 85 percent. While ethanol has made its way into American gasoline during the winter months for many years to provide greater oxygenation and reduce pollution, the ethanol has been limited to less than 10 percent of the total solution. The high percentage of ethanol in E85 requires vehicles to be specially manufactured in order to run correctly either on E85 or gasoline. These are known as Flexible Fuel Vehicles (FFV). Flexible Fuel Vehicles are currently available from many different manufacturers and ready to run E85 turnkey right off the showroom floor.
While the concept and practice of using alcohol as fuel may seem like a new idea there are people who have been burning up methanol alcohol in internal combustion engines to great effect for many years. Methanol alcohol is a chemical cousin to ethanol alcohol. Numerous classes of drag racing and circle track cars burn methanol alcohol and achieve great performance and speed. Even the cars of the legendary Indy 500 run methanol alcohol as fuel. The reason methanol works so well in the case of racing is that the engines in these speedy racecars are designed specifically to burn alcohol instead of gasoline. The problems with converting and running an internal combustion engine to run on ethanol or methanol are therefore well known. Converting a regular car or truck to run on E85 or gasoline is possible but also presents problems for the aftermarket consumer.
Making the Switch | Back To Top
The first issue of conversion is that ethanol itself is corrosive to many of the parts in a standard gasoline fuel supply system. The fuel tank and lines have to either be made of stainless steel or other corrosion resistant material. Further down the path of fuel are all the hoses and gaskets that come in contact with the ethanol. Standard hoses that will stand up to gasoline for years will not hold up with exposure to ethanol. Even engine parts must be specially manufactured to work with and withstand exposure to ethanol fuel. A racing team will drain the fuel tank and fuel lines of methanol after a race. The average driver or commuter would most likely find this process unacceptable. A conversion kit that switched out the fuel supply system with corrosion proof parts might seem the easy answer but would solve only part of the problem in converting a vehicle designed to run on unleaded gasoline to run on E85.
A gallon of pure gasoline contains more energy stored in its molecules than a gallon of pure ethanol. What this means is that an engine set up to run on both gasoline and ethanol has to burn more fuel when running ethanol than it does gasoline. The fuel pump, lines, and injectors must be able to deliver the increased supply of fuel. The fuel system also needs to be able to adjust itself to compensate for different volumes of fuel. A second difference is that ethanol has a higher octane than gasoline. Thus a Flexible Fuel Vehicle has to adjust ignition timing and fuel delivery on the fly. At the heart of a FFV is the specially prepared engine computer. Dedicated sensors upstream and downstream of the engine send signals to the computer telling it what percentage of either fuel is being delivered or burned. The engine computer is then able to correctly adjust the ignition timing and amount of fuel entering the engine for seamless drivability.
While modifying an existing unleaded gasoline vehicle to run on E85 or even 100 percent ethanol is certainly theoretically possible, there are two primary problems. Converting an older non-computerized carbureted vehicle may not break the bank, but the associated costs of converting a modern vehicle are a bit more prohibitive to the average end consumer. A further concern is that of emissions laws. Even though this may seem hard to believe, there is currently no aftermarket E85 conversion kits or systems approved for use by the Environmental Protection Energy. Converting a gasoline only vehicle to run on E85 or ethanol is therefore technically and currently illegal in the United States. While this situation may soon change the best way to convert to E85 use is to convert the entire vehicle outright to a Flexible Fuel Vehicle.
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http://www.e85fuel.com
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