Re: "Fred" speaks on E85----Comparing Apples to Apples

(Ed. Note: This was a comment from another post that I have posted for better visability.)



Fred Juergens <FredJuergens@Charter.net> wrote:

Fred Juergens has left a new comment on your post ""Walton" Speaks on "Building a Bandwagon."":

Part of this comment is also posted on "Walton", but may get more attention here......

One fact that never, well hardly ever, shows up in the E85 discourse is that mileage with E85 is substantially lower than with gasoline. Any chemist can tell you there's just not as much energy in a gallon of E85 as there is in a gallon of gas, and that is never going to change -- it's just the nature of the materials.

A month or so ago, the NYTimes had an article elaborating on this point. I'll just cite one example of a vehicle which can run on both fuels:

According to the EPA, 2006 Dodge Ram 1500 pickup burning gasoline gets 12 mpg in city and 15 on highway. Burning E85, the same vehicle gets 9 mpg in city and 11 on highway.

E85 will have to be about 25% cheaper than gasoline, according to these figures, in order for the cost-per-mile of using E85 to be the same as gasoline.

In contrast, petroleum-based diesel fuel has about 10% MORE energy/gallon than gasoline. I'm frankly not sure about bio-diesel made from soy oil specifically, but bio-diesel in general has about the SAME energy/gallon as gasoline.

I suggest that these are all points to ponder as governments at all levels work toward "energy independence". There's political controversy right now about an E85 pump in Monroe, I believe, having the right to sell its product at about $2.15/gallon, or whether it should be sold at the same price as petroleum-based gasoline.

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Posted by Fred Juergens to Evansville Observer at 8/13/2006 11:40:36 AM