Avoiding Ethanol
By Franz, Paul
pfranz@lnpnews.com Even with an efficient Toyota Prius hybrid, J. Howard Hankins isn’t getting the gas mileage he once did.
“I was getting 53 miles per gallon, and now it’s down to 47,” said the Manheim Township resident. “No matter how I drive, I can’t get it to change.”
He blames the drop entirely on the gasoline he buys, which contains up to 10 percent of ethanol.
“It’s frustrating that they’ve crammed it into my gas tank,” he said. “I was satisfied with how it was before.”
High oil prices, environmental issues and unrest in the oil-rich Middle East have contributed to an ethanol boom in recent years. Gov. Ed Rendell wants every gas station in Pennsylvania to sell gas containing at least 10 percent ethanol.
Just one problem: A lot of motorists don’t like it.
“[The experts] are claiming it’s a panacea for all our troubles,” Hankins said. “It’s not giving the consumer any benefit at all.”
Proponents tout ethanol as a greener alternative to petroleum, but a study released by the International Energy Agency shows that ethanol can be less efficient in cars not designed for its use.
“There’s a debate about it,” said Mark Cooper, of the Consumer Federation of America in Washington, D.C.
Fuel ethanol produced from corn provides more than 2.6 billion gallons of fuel per year, accounting for just over 2 percent of the total U.S. consumption of motor gasoline.
And ethanol isn’t causing problems just for commuters. In older motors, especially in boats and landscaping equipment, ethanol is not only less efficient, but destructive.
“It’s been a nightmare,” said Fred Heisey, owner of Fred’s Outboard Sales in Willow Street. “About the middle of last season when ethanol hit our market, boats started dying one after the other.”
Ethanol is an alcohol-based solving agent that washes out the motor cylinders, said Heisey, who has repaired motors at his shop for more than 35 years.
“It’s killing them,” he said. “[The ethanol] dilutes the oil and renders the motor ineffective.
“It’s not a pretty picture.”
The IEA report says that motors with older parts made of plastic and rubber are corroded easily by ethanol, but the problem could be fixed by using Teflon and stainless steel parts instead.
Gas-powered tools such as lawnmowers and chainsaws are similarly affected.
“You should be here when I tell customers that their engine got fried by ethanol gas,” Heisey said.
The problem is easily corrected, he added, if owners fill up their tanks with conventional gas, but sources of it are drying up fast. Only a handful of gas stations still carry conventional gasoline.
“You literally can’t find gas without ethanol in it anymore,” said Darryl Wittle, of Mountville. “There’s only a few [conventional gas stations] left.”
Non-ethanol gasoline has become a red-hot commodity for Lancastrians keeping a close eye on their cars’ gas mileage.
The demand has been so high that Paresh Savani placed a roadside sign outside his Citgo station in Willow Street that reads: “Our gas is conventional. No ethanol.”
But most stations in the county now carry E10, a blend of 10 percent ethanol and 90 percent gasoline. Stations that carry the blend generally have stickers on their pumps that say the gas “carries up to 10 percent ethanol.”
Mussers Market at the Buck and Citgo stations in the county still sell non-ethanol blends, but managers and owners say their supplies might not last long because of tightening government regulations.
“I’m going to keep it as long as I can,” said Wes Stahl, store director at Mussers Market. “It could be six months from now, it could be two years from now. It’s going to hit us at some point.”
“As long as the government doesn’t set a deadline,” Savani said, “I’ll keep it.”
The Bush administration’s energy bill passed by Congress last year mandates that 9 billion gallons of ethanol be blended into gasoline in the U.S. in 2008. Thirty-six billion gallons of ethanol are poised to flow into the energy pipeline by 2022.
A $120 million ethanol plant proposed for Conoy Township is still in the works, but a court hearing is scheduled for an appeal against the action from Nissley Vineyards.
Seth Obetz, vice chairman of Worley & Obetz, a Manheim-based biofuels company supporting the Conoy plant, said it’s true that ethanol yields less energy than conventional gasoline, but the cost to produce it evens out the difference.
“We’re so trained on mpg, that most of us don’t even concentrate on cost per mile,” he said.
“That’s what really matters.”
Obetz said ethanol is generally cheaper than oil on the commodity market, and the difference in mpg is minimal.
The IEA found that cars using ethanol produced a “fairly wide range of impacts, from slightly worse to substantially better energy efficiency than conventional gasoline.”
Though proponents say the jury is still out on the costs of ethanol, consumers aren’t buying it.
States such as Florida have passed laws mandating all gas stations carry ethanol-based fuels by the end of 2010.
Though no deadline law has been passed here, ethanol is a key component of Gov. Rendell’s Energy Independence Strategy, which will eventually require 10 percent of all gasoline sold in the state to include ethanol made from cellulosic (plant) ethanol when in-state production is high enough.
“Let’s speed up the process and melt the [engines] down even quicker,” Heisey said of the state’s push to ethanol. “It’s not going to work.
“I don’t see it getting corrected until we get rid of ethanol.”
Newer car engines and four-cycle motors designed to use ethanol gas aren’t as affected by the ethanol switch, but that hasn’t deterred gas station owners or commuters from sticking with conventional gasoline.
“I sell a different product that packs more punch,” said Stahl. “If I can save my customers two to three miles a gallon, I have a commodity.”
(Copyright 2008 Lancaster Newspapers. All rights reserved.)
(c) 2008 Sunday News; Lancaster, Pa.. Provided by ProQuest LLC. All rights Reserved.