You are now hard pressed to find any gas station in North America that will sell you pure gasoline without an ethanol mix, or otherwise known as gasohol (if it’s above E10). While being a cleaner and greener fuel source than traditional petroleum products, ethanol fuel has it’s share of problems.
List of Current Ethanol Fuel Problems
Currently, gasoline ethanol mixes up to E15 are okay to use in cars built after 2000 in the United States. Any use of a mix above E15 is not warranted by the automakers as problems start to rise at that point. One of the common problems of ethanol fuel is that attacks the rubber seals in fuel systems and around other components, which can then on increase the likelihood of a gasoline leak.In addition to the rubber seals, ethanol has also been known to cause corrosion within aluminum gas tanks and it can not be used with fiberglass tanks at all.
In boats, ethanol attracts water and engines commonly have to have application of fuel additives in order to disperse the water that ethanol contains. Or micro filters can be installed to prevent water build up. Boats also run into issues of the ethanol creating clogs in their fuel systems which have to be constantly removed.
So far ethanol mixes of any type have not been approved for airline travel except in highly specialized individual private aircraft.
Ethanol in high mixes such as E85 is known for it’s poor fuel economy. Up to 30% drops in fuel economy were recorded during tests in 2006. Some vehicles also have issues with their sensors not being able to detect oxygen correctly due to ethanol’s quicker combustion.
One of the largest problems with ethanol is that it may not be as green as it truly is. While it’s true that you can burn it and it hardly will affect the environment and your air, the problem lies in how it’s produced and the requirements for production. For every 1 part ethanol, 3 parts water are required. Also many of the plants producing ethanol are coal powered, especially in third world countries. Another issue is that corn is already the most consumed foodstuff in the world, and by switching the production of corn as a foodstuff to the production of a fuel is leading to global price increases in food and even shortages as we saw in the past two years.