02-21-2006, 06:56 PM
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Pretty Darn Active Enthusiast
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Real Name: Bill
Hybrids: 2006 Honda Civic Hybrid (II)
Posts: 323
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Re: Ethanol -- Can HCH I or II Run on It?
If you live in Iowa (and thank your lucky stars you don't  , E-10 is everywhere, since we're one of the big corn producing states. In fact, it's hard to find a station that doesn't have it as it's "mid grade" gasoline, which is always lower cost than the "regular" grade without ethanol, which has confused more than one out-of-towner.
The cost depends on the cost of gasoline. From watching it over the past few years, it appears that the break-even cost is when gas is about $1.50/gal. Above this price, ethanol gets cheaper. Right now it's probably about 10 cents a gallon cheaper, at around $2.15 per gallon.
The environmental jury is still out on ethanol. While it saves on gasoline at the pump, production of ethanol uses oil. The farmer needs to plow the field, plant, harvest, etc., and the plant that manufactures it uses energy to produce it. But some argue that the farmer would have grown the crop anyway, and the cost of manufacturing it isn't a lot different than the cost of refining oil into gasoline. Studies are inconclusive, from what I've seen. Anyone know of a good study that seems to put this to bed?
E-85 is catching on here in corn country, but still not very available. Ran into it at a station in Missouri outside St. Louis, and my uneducated companion filled up a Ford Expedition with it. Luckily it was a company vehicle. It ran fine, and a dealer we stopped at told us it wouldn't hurt it, but even though it's cheaper the vehicle will get lousy gas mileage if it's not set up for it, so the end result is a wash. Plus there may be something to the whole plastic fuel line thing - I wouldn't want to run it regularly unless the car was set up for it.
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