Ethanol issues - GreenHybrid

VMA131Marine · #1 (**permalink**) 09-13-2007, 10:36 PM

Has anyone tried to quantify the effect of ethanol added to gasoline on HAH fuel economy. I live in CT, which mandates 10% ethanol as an oxygenate in fuel (vs MTBE). My parents live in PA, where ethanol is not added to gasoline. When I go to visit my folks, it appears that consistently I get a bump of 2-3 mpg on the return trip (with "good" PA gas) compared to the outbound trip (with "bad" CT fuel).

Anybody else noticed this?

AshenGrey · #2 (**permalink**) 09-14-2007, 04:28 AM

Yeah. Baltimore gasoline gives me 42 MPG and Altoona gasoline gives me about 46 MPG.

tigerhonaker · #3 (**permalink**) 09-14-2007, 05:47 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by AshenGrey

Yeah. Baltimore gasoline gives me 42 MPG and Altoona gasoline gives me about 46 MPG.

Hi Chris,

Have not seen your name in awhile now.

jdenenberg · #4 (**permalink**) 09-14-2007, 06:43 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by VMA131Marine

Has anyone tried to quantify the effect of ethanol added to gasoline on HAH fuel economy. I live in CT, which mandates 10% ethanol as an oxygenate in fuel (vs MTBE). My parents live in PA, where ethanol is not added to gasoline. When I go to visit my folks, it appears that consistently I get a bump of 2-3 mpg on the return trip (with "good" PA gas) compared to the outbound trip (with "bad" CT fuel).

Anybody else noticed this?

There are several factors, but the main reason that E10 reduces gas mileage (a 3% reduction) is that ethanol has 30% less energy content than gasoline.

JeffD