Why is E10 cheaper than 100% gasoline?

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Can someone explain why E10 is cheaper than 100% gasoline?

Is E10 really cheaper to produce or is there some sort of carbon tax added to 100% gasoline?

First of all I heard the reason for E10 was to balance out emissions. Then I've heard that there is no evidence to support E10 burns any cleaner than pure gasoline.

Then I've heard that's 10% oil (well so to speak) we don't have to import. But I've also heard we are now drilling more oil than ever and most of the oil is drilled either in the United States or off shore.

I have "heard" for every gallon of alcohol produced, it takes 2 gallons of diesel fuel to transport it from wherever (Midwest) to the refineries to be mixed. Or it's the equivalent to 2 gallons of gasoline.

I've also heard E10 is highly subsidized by the government.

So if all of this is true, then why does 100% gasoline cost more?

I run E10 in my fuel injected cars but I've stopped using it in anything with a gravity fed fuel system and anything with a 2 stroke engine. I've had to tear into several carbs to clean out gummed up float valves that have gummed up over the winter.

However most of these were my father's. I try to keep my tanks in my small engines topped off so the stuff doesn't absorb moisture and sink to the bottom. To the float valve, the lowest point in the fuel system.

When I do run E10 in my cars, I try to run the tank down near empty and start with fresh fuel. I used to top off my tanks at half a tank before E10 came about.

I still say E10 is some sort of government conspiracy.
 
I could be wrong, but it's my understanding that the vast majority of gasoline sold in the United States has at least some ethanol in it, oftentimes up to 10 percent, with many states not having legislation which requires gas retailers to label their petroleum as having ethanol. Having looked through several states here, it seems that many of the stations listed as 100% pure gas are located at marinas or near bodies of water with boat traffic.

http://pure-gas.org/

I"d be interested in knowing how accurate a site like this pure gas one would be.
 
E10 HAS to be cheaper than gasoline, as you are buying less energy per gallon.

Should be about 5% cheaper.
 
E10 is added to gas so they can use lower octane rated gas(less refining) and still meet 87 octane.

Refiners produce 84 octane blendstock that, when blended with ethanol, will meet the 87 octane minimum for regular-grade gasoline, and produce 88 octane blendstock that will meet a 91 octane premium-grade finished gasoline requirement after blending.

Out "87" of today is just 84 octane gas spiked with enough Ethanol to meet the 87 octane minimum. It is NOT 87 "Gasoline", it is gasolhol, a great scam like high fructose corn syrup replacing sugar.
 
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Corn lobbies are the simple reason why we have E10 gasoline.
There are also corn subsidies which adds to the mess.

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Understanding why ethanol blended fuel is cheaper than non-ethanol blended fuel is easy: Ethanol is cheaper than the alternative.

A non-ethanol blend fuel will require more antiknock agents, like aromatics or ETBE, to achieve a specific octane rating. Alcohol by itself is an antiknock agent. It's not a stretch to realize that a fuel blended with an alcohol will require less antiknock agents and less overall cost to blend. A great example is ETBE. ETBE *requires* ethanol to create. You're not really getting rid of ethanol, you're just moving it to a different location in the supply chain. So, if ETBE still requires ethanol *and* it requires more processing, of course it is going to be more expensive.

There is nothing fundamentally wrong with an ethanol blended fuel. Any remotely modern vehicle will have no trouble with it. Much of ethanol-blend fuels issues stem from how it interacts with water and material incompatability, but that primarily affects cheap power equipment, old power equipment, old motorcycles, and marine applications.

The United States grows *a lot* of corn. Corn is used to make many things cheaper. There was a documentary made a few years back called "King Corn" and one of the people they interviewed made a really good correlation. In the US, food costs are the lowest in the world. That is, is costs less per day to feed a person than anywhere else. In other first world countries, costs are 50% higher and go up from there. The low cost of food means we can spend our money in other places, further driving the economy. Granted, corn-based food is usually processed junk that is terrible for us, but it is inexpensive. One of the quotes used in the movie that stuck with me was, "We subsidize Happy Meals, not healthy ones." As terrible as that is, countries like China or India would love to have the "problem" of cheap, low quality food to inexpensivly feed their massive populations.

Looking at a larger picture, ending corn subsidies will have far further reaching effects than just having ethanol-free fuel. It's easy to simplify issues on an internet forum, but actual solutions are never quite so simple.
 
Ethanol is only cheaper because it is subsidized at multiple stages of its production. If all that "welfare" was yanked by the government, it would be much more costly to produce.
 
No, ethanol is not cheaper because of some supposed subsidies. Ethanol is traded on the commodities market exchanges just like oil, gold, silver, steel, copper, etc. How much ethanol producers get for it is based on the market price. Direct ethanol subsidies to ethanol producers were eliminated at the end of 2011. Only direct subsidies are in the form of grants to RETAILERS for ethanol blender pumps. There has not been any corn price support subsidies paid out to corn growers this century. Sure, there are crop insurance supports, land erosion improvement grants, and other stuff that is not corn related, but not one dime in actual corn price supports paid. And corn price is similar to what it was in the 1990's.
 
Originally Posted By: TiredTrucker
No, ethanol is not cheaper because of some supposed subsidies. Ethanol is traded on the commodities market exchanges just like oil, gold, silver, steel, copper, etc. How much ethanol producers get for it is based on the market price. Direct ethanol subsidies to ethanol producers were eliminated at the end of 2011. Only direct subsidies are in the form of grants to RETAILERS for ethanol blender pumps. There has not been any corn price support subsidies paid out to corn growers this century. Sure, there are crop insurance supports, land erosion improvement grants, and other stuff that is not corn related, but not one dime in actual corn price supports paid. And corn price is similar to what it was in the 1990's.


The renewable fuel standard is a form of welfare. It gives ethanol a guaranteed market share, whether the market wants it or not.
 
I thought ethanol was originally added (in the midwest at least) to combat the whole water in the gas problem

growing up I recall many many times where my father told me to go in the garage and grab the small bottle of HEET

since ethanol in fuel I haven't heard of a single family member/relative/friend having any problems with water in gas...

that being said why does it need to be mandated that E10(not 100% gas) be sold in all or most metropolitan areas?
 
Originally Posted By: TurboFiat124
Can someone explain why E10 is cheaper than 100% gasoline?


It isn't. It's just that you are paying for the ethanol elsewhere other than at the pump . . . in your Federal taxes.

Ethanol production is still heavily subsidized. As pointed out above, you can thank lobbyists. And congress.
 
When we speak of ethanol we should clarify: corn ethanol or sugar ethanol (like in Brazil). Corn ethanol is more expensive to produce, consumes more resources and creates much more pollution.
It would be cheaper to buy ethanol from Brazil and ship it up here.

Alternative fuels is a great venue, it just not an easy one.
 
Originally Posted By: skyactiv
Corn lobbies are the simple reason why we have E10 gasoline.
There are also corn subsidies which adds to the mess.

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Number 3 is POET. A while back Macon. MO had a fly in and one of the local sponsors was POET. Now talk about irony!!! Aircraft cant use moonshine for gas.
 
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Originally Posted By: Robenstein
Ethanol is only cheaper because it is subsidized at multiple stages of its production. If all that "welfare" was yanked by the government, it would be much more costly to produce.
+1 for THAT simple observation which is the REAL story. If the free market were allowed to control this folks wouldn't be inclined to spend MORE for LESS.
 
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Originally Posted By: edwardh1
in so carolina pure gas at a station is $3.10 , ethanol is $1.89 ish


We had that happen here in Iowa in the last year or so too. The major supplier started shipping in the low 84 octane which requires you to blend in premium to get the octane up to 87. And by using Premium you make both the non ethanol 87 and the premium more expensive.


Before that non ethanol 87 octane was 5 cents a gallon more than ethanol 89 octane.
 
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