[T3] E 15 fuel

Dave Hall dave at hallvw.clara.co.uk
Wed Jan 9 16:36:31 PST 2013


The FAA approves the use of motor gasoline for aviation fuels in certain
light aircraft, but bans the use of any ethanol mixture.

The reasons for not allowing Ethanol are:- 
Higher vapour pressure increases the risk of vapour lock (worse at higher
altitude); 
Reduction of octane rating as the Ethanol evaporates from the mixture more
quickly than the gasoline;
Incompatability of alcohol with fuel system materials;
Reduced range (lower specific energy content). 

http://www.eaa.org/autofuel/saibs/10_27_06%20-%20CE-07-06.pdf summarises the
concern.

I guess if there is a tendency for phase separation (not sure that's the
right expression - stratification might be better), an ethanol-rich mixture
would tend to be used first, which would leave the lower octane gasoline to
damage the engine - in fact, just what the lady said.  Aircraft using motor
fuels tend to be hobby machines, used from time to time with days between
uses, which would give more time for stratification to occur, though the
same would be true of some cars too.  

That's leaving aside the fact that growing a food plant to burn seems just
plain stupid at a time of increasing world food shortages.  Maybe the aim is
to reduce world population?

Dave
UK VW Type 3&4 Club
===================

-----Original Message-----
From: type3-vwtype3.org-bounces at lists.vwtype3.org
[mailto:type3-vwtype3.org-bounces at lists.vwtype3.org] On Behalf Of Jim Adney
Sent: 09 January 2013 13:43
To: type3 at vwtype3.org
Subject: Re: [T3] E 15 fuel

On 9 Jan 2013 at 7:41, John L. Morgan IV wrote:

> Have you guys seen this?
> Looks like others need our fuel!

> http://video.foxbusiness.com/v/2000862202001/

Wow, whole lotta' hyperventilating goin' on here! A LOT of what their
so-called expert says is pure hogwash, but there may be a bit of truth in
there. And that, of course, is how the best lies are composed.

I don't think pure Ethanol and gasoline will ever separate, BUT if you add
some water to the gas, it will sink to the bottom and the ethanol will
preferentally move to the water. Thus water is required to get the 2 to
separate, and the degree of separation will depend on the amount of water.
Now there's commonly some water in most gas, but the amount is small enough
to be ignored. If there was a large amount, the separation would occur in
the tanks in the ground, in which case you'd probably end up with either gas
or water/ethanol in your tank.

The comment about reduced octane is probably correct, assuming complete
separation, but the comment that implies that E15 has only
1/3 the energy content of pure gas is pure BS.  

On the other hand, there's reasonable doubt that ethanol will ever be a good
fuel, economically, since it's not clear that we get more than
1 gallon of ethanol out for every gallon of energy equivalent put into the
system to produce that gallon.

--
*******************************
Jim Adney, jadney at vwtype3.org
Madison, Wisconsin, USA
*******************************

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