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As gas prices creep up, ethanol saves drivers money, Ethonal Board says

Nebraska

Nationally, gas prices have risen nearly every day for the past 42 days. Some analysts expect that a return to $100 oil--and $4 gas--isn't far behind. But Nebraska drivers are already saving money by filling up with E10.

"Nebraska drivers have already saved over $4.5 million in 2009 by buying E10," said Todd Sneller, administrator of the Nebraska Ethanol Board. "If all the fuel sold in Nebraska in the past five years was E85, Nebraskans would have saved $2.6 billion."

Some economists have expressed concern that higher oil prices could even prolong the recession. The oil industry is desperately trying to inflate the price of oil with OPEC production quotas and oil refinery shutdowns, even as oil and gas demand drops. Worldwide oil demand is 2.6 million barrels per day lower than it was a year ago, according to the International Energy Agency.

"Nebraskans can save money, support their local economies and send Big Oil a message that we're tired of outrageous prices while they rake in billions," said Ethanol Board chair Mike Thede. "Buying ethanol made right here in Nebraska keeps money in your pocket."

Ethanol continues to play an increasingly important role in meeting U.S. transportation fuel demand. According to an analysis by the Clean Fuels Development Coalition, ethanol is the third largest source of transportation fuel in the U.S., behind oil imports from Canada and Saudi Arabia. In terms of energy contribution, domestic ethanol equals about 30% of oil imports to the US.

Ethanol provides a cleaner, cheaper alternative to gasoline, and lets Nebraskans take control of their energy future.

"We can invest in alternative, renewable, inexpensive fuels like ethanol, or we can continue the billion-dollar giveaway to Big Oil," Thede said.

Established in 1971, the Ethanol Board assists ethanol producers with programs and strategies for marketing ethanol and related co-products. The Board supports organizations and policies that advocate the increased use of ethanol fuels - and administers public information, education and ethanol research projects. The Board also assists companies and organizations in the development of ethanol production facilities in Nebraska. For more information, please visit www.ne-ethanol.org.

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Records 4 Reader Comments E10 Solutiond — 07/12/2009 12:07:02 The previous posts before me are correct. The energy value of E10 is approx. 111,000 BTU's while conventional gasoline is approx. 125,000 BTU's. This means that you must consume more E10 to achieve the same power output as conventional gasoline. You will see a 5-10% drop in mileage, along with decreased performance, damage to fuel system parts, water contamination issues, etc. E10 is not saving us money, its costing us MORE money. E10 by itself is a terrible solution to our fuel problem and will achieve nothing besides hurting people's engines and costing them more at the pump. E10 information: www.fueltestkit.com However, if you must use E10 and are having engine problems, fuel system damage, contaminated fuel, etc. it is recommended to look into a fuel additive to help with these problems. View a list of additives with MSDS' here: www.e10gasadditives.com/fuel_additive_list.html I recommend Eth-Guard as an additive for ethanol blends because it will dramatically increase the energy of the fuel, thereby increasing mileage and performance. It will also lubricate vital fuel system components. www.e10gasadditives.com/product_ethguard.com.html Reader Comments OldandSlow — 07/03/2009 05:07:41 It takes 1.5 gallons of ethanol to provide the energy content of 1 gallon of gasoline. Each bushel of corn processed into ethanol uses plenty of fuel in the form of diesel, natural gas and coal from the time of planting, to distilling and then all the way to the pump. The net gain in energy is miniscule. Growing corn for fuel requires access to fresh water. How's the aquafier looking these days? The present use of corn for ethanol is only viable due to generous Federal subsidies. With the Federal deficits at a record high, the subsidies are not subtainable for the long term. E10 has already caused problem in older carburated vehicles and small engines. Vapor lock is an issue and the fuel does not store well. An alternative is to improve the fuel efficiency of the nations vehicles by 15% - that alone would equal a 10 fold increase in the amount of ethanol that we currently produce. - or - Maybe someone thinks that farmers will be able to increase the corn production tenfold at the flip of a switch. Reader Comments Virgil Exner — 07/03/2009 12:07:14 If we mis-fuel a gasoline car with ethanol, it will show an even greater loss in mileage than can be calculated just from the simple difference in energy content of ethanol vs. gasoline. That’s because the gasoline car’s fuel system and engine are designed, calibrated, and optimized for the energy content and combustion characteristics of gasoline, not ethanol. One example is compression ratio, which can be much higher in a vehicle designed to run on ethanol — this extracts more energy from the fuel, reducing (but usually not eliminating) the mileage deficit.Gasoline contains about 115,000 BTU per U.S. gallon, LHV. Ethanol contains about 75,700 BTU per U.S. gallon, LHV. That means ethanol contains about 66% of the energy that gasoline contains.Therefore:E10 — gasoline with 10% ethanol — contains 111,070 BTU per U.S. gallon (3.4% less energy than straight gasoline; 19.3 mpg instead of 20 mpg).E15 — gasoline with 15% ethanol — contains 109,105 BTU per U.S. gallon (5.1% less energy than straight gasoline; 19 mpg instead of 20 mpg).E85 — ethanol with 15% gasoline — contains 81,595 BTU per U.S. gallon (29% less energy than straight gasoline; 14.1 mpg instead of 20 mpg).Let’s plug in some pump prices from last summer and see the effect of E85 upon walletary negative cashflow:$2.85/gallon for E85 means $2.85 for 81,595 BTU of energy. That’s $3.49 per 100,000 BTU.$4.10/gallon for gasoline means $4.10 for 115,000 BTU of energy. That’s $3.57 per 100,000 BTU.The visually enormous difference between $2.85 and $4.10 per gallon, does it actually deliver big savings? No, you’re paying all of six cents less per hundred thousand BTUs by buying E85 instead of gasoline. And that’s without factoring in the cost (in money, time, and nuisance) of the damage being done to a fuel system not designed for high concentrations of alcohol. And don’t forget to add in the additional driving (with attendant exhaust, tire wear, and engine oil consumption) caused by more frequent trips to the gas station — both your trips and the supply trucks’ trips.A large Federal study (see it at http://feerc.ornl.gov/publications/Int_blends_Rpt_1.pdf ) was done of the effects of ethanol-blended gasoline in cars and small engines. They didn’t test cars older than 2001 or so, but the highlights of the findings are pretty revealing: significant loss in fuel economy and small engines ran progressively worse and hotter with increasing ethanol concentration in the fuel. They didn’t see any driveability problems in cars because they didn’t look; they do note no “cold” starting problems when tried as “low” as 50°F. Given those findings, it looks disturbingly like the contradictory conclusion (hooray for ethanol, let’s add more of it to our gasoline!) was prescribed before the “study” was carried out. That’s disappointing, but not terribly surprising given the large and very successful ethanol lobby.And burning ethanol doesn’t even reduce car exhaust toxicity, it just changes which toxic chemicals come out of the exhaust pipe: See http://www.livescience.com/environment/070418_ethanol_harm.html . Reader Comments David Holzman — 07/03/2009 11:07:04 You make it sound as if Nebraska is the only state with E10. Most of the US has E10. E10 reduces my gas mileage by about 10% (I keep close records). Furthermore, a federal subsidy of 51 cents/gallon goes into ethanol, so I doubt that there is savings. Furthermore, it takes just about as much petroleum, in the form of fertilizer, tractor fuel, and other inputs, to produce a gallon of ethanol, as is saved by using the ethanol, so it's a wash. For more info go to http://www.ehponline.org/docs/2008/116-6/focus-abs.html/ Add Your Comment To post a comment on this story, enter your screen name and email address then click "Add Comment." Your email address will not be displayed. 106 Recommend | 0 Comments

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