We love our ethanol!

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SevenBizzos

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At a local station on Friday that had a very good regular unleaded price. I live in a E10 mandated area already and I see there are now three additional blends to choose from. I'd like to know how much E30 they actually sell. Has anyone seen choices like this?

[Linked Image]
 
The lower % ethanol is usually worth the less fuel mileage because the price is significantly cheaper.
E85 is usually NOT worth it in cost vs benifit.
Mandate or no mandate, most refineries would still use ethanol for blending to increase the octane.
I do NOT like it when a state removes non-ethanol possibilities like Minnesota.

Per OP's question. Here in Iowa, many gas stations offer different ethanol blends.
 
Originally Posted by SevenBizzos
At a local station on Friday that had a very good regular unleaded price. I live in a E10 mandated area already and I see there are now three additional blends to choose from. I'd like to know how much E30 they actually sell. Has anyone seen choices like this?

[Linked Image]


Boy, I wish I could get that 87 pump E0 here @$2.49! I can only get 92 pump for about 10c less than you, right now. In the winter it hovers around $4, sometimes going over 4 bucks. Yikes!

I've personally not seen E30 in these parts but E10/15 /85 is pretty common around here.
 
I would guess the 87 and 92 are E10, especially at that price.

I would love to have that pump locally. If I had even a single E85 pump locally, I'd switch my car over to it.

Ethanol free 87 is going away around here. The few that still have it want $3.50+/gal for it when E10 87 is $2.29/gal. Even then, it's not good quality as they sell so little, the stuff you get has been sitting in the tank for several months.
 
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I thought that ethanol was a bad thing, but with the tariffs and trade war(other counties not buying corn) this can really help the farmers weather out geo political tensions.

Now I realize it is good, keeping us more independent from foreign states.
 
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In more modern vehicles, it's worth a try "if" the ethanol blends are priced according to energy content. Some engines achieve better BSFC with moderate levels of ethanol. There are a few valid reasons for this. Including very high compression ratios, the combustion chamber shape, bore and stroke, and the ability to rapidly manage A/F ratio along with ign timing.

The vehicles known to do very poorly on high ethanol blends include older design, modest compression, 2 valve, port injection, pushrod V8/V6 engines.

The higher ethanol content changes the detonation characteristics of some engines. Especially boosted engines. All is not equal.

What's more interesting. Those blending pumps use E10 as the "base fuel" and add additional ethanol to it. Raising the effective octane.
 
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My 1996 Mustang GT likes to ping a lot on 87 E10

I mix in about 30% E85 (it is a non-flex-fuel vehicle) with E10 87 and that fixes the pinging.

It does burn a little more, but I don't have to pay for premium or add octane booster.
 
Originally Posted by Iowegian
The lower % ethanol is usually worth the less fuel mileage because the price is significantly cheaper.
E85 is usually NOT worth it in cost vs benifit.
Mandate or no mandate, most refineries would still use ethanol for blending to increase the octane.
I do NOT like it when a state removes non-ethanol possibilities like Minnesota.

Per OP's question. Here in Iowa, many gas stations offer different ethanol blends.

E85 has certain advantages relative to the energy content - most notably the ability to severely advance timing in flex-fuel vehicles. But it's a math exercise and often a guess since E85 can vary in ethanol content.

And some people prefer E85 because vehicles accelerate faster.
 
yes but Illinois has a 38cents per gallon fuel tax increase starting july 1st so my local thorntons is down below 2.61 waiting for the spike and always trying to offer options to the local consumer
 
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With that kind of price differential, I would run ethanol (E85) all day long.

My truck suffers about a 15% mileage reduction on a full tank of E85, but it has better throttle response. Maybe a bit more power, I don't get close enough to full throttle to be able to tell.

So, in this case, this set of pump prices, cheaper cost per mile and better running?

Oh, yeah, E85...
 
For me, cost per mile is still less running E85 over Premium, which my vehicle is tuned for. Plus I like the way the exhaust smells and the cleaner burn of E85, no more black exhaust tail pipe.
 
Originally Posted by Mad_Hatter
Originally Posted by SevenBizzos
At a local station on Friday that had a very good regular unleaded price. I live in a E10 mandated area already and I see there are now three additional blends to choose from. I'd like to know how much E30 they actually sell. Has anyone seen choices like this?

[Linked Image]


Boy, I wish I could get that 87 pump E0 here @$2.49! I can only get 92 pump for about 10c less than you, right now. In the winter it hovers around $4, sometimes going over 4 bucks. Yikes!

I've personally not seen E30 in these parts but E10/15 /85 is pretty common around here.

It's not E-0 there, that's E-10. I was there 2 weeks ago. However, we have 87 E-0 for $2.35, or 91 E-0 for $2.79 here if you'd like.
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It's laughable how their E-85 is more expensive than our E-10. Springfield, IL is the most corrupt city/region I've ever seen when it comes to gas prices. Every pump in the entire city is the exact same price within a penny, always. One afternoon every station is $2.49. Less than two hours later every pump in the city is $2.79. This happens like clockwork every 10-14 days. I know there aren't enough fuel trucks within 100 miles to fill every station's tanks. But it's completely normal to them, and nobody ever questions anything.
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If that happened here, those stations would be shut down. Legally or by means of fire.
 
Effective net cost based on energy content:


E10 (regular) 249.9
E15 - 242.2
E30 - 236.2
E85 - $248.3 (70% ethanol)
E85 - $265.6 (85% ethanol)

So the cheapest fuel is E30
 
Originally Posted by 2strokeNorthstar
I would love to get even the 91 octane at that price. Ethanol is a waste and bad for the environment

As a practical matter, ethanol is the cheapest and most effective octane booster available save MTBE. The more common requirements for premium (or even super premium) would still drive towards the use.
 
Haven't seen this in the Northeast, but we have Sunocos with five different octanes available at the pump. So there's that anyway.
 
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