E85 Ethanol and Reg. Unleaded Fuel Comp.
Created August 10, 2006, at 12:01 am by Anonymous
Many wonder why all hybrids are not running on E85 Ethanol along with regular unleaded fuel. The reason you do not have the energy in E85 Ethanol that you have in regular unleaded fuel is directly related to the Btu's of energy between the two. A gallon of E85 results in 81,800 Btu's per gallon. The identical amount of regular unleaded fuel (typical) provides 114,100 Btu's. This is why we all experience less power and worse MPG running on ethanol versus reg. unleaded fuel. If you own a car with a fuel computer just watch your avg. mpg decline when you fill with E85 ethanol and watch your avg. mpg improve (all driving habits being equal) with a tankful of reg. unleaded.
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Maybe the mpg declines, but you're still uising less GASOLINE. For example, let's say your gas tank holds 15 gallons, and you get 30 mpg; that is 450 miles to a tank. If you get only 25 mpg with E85, that yields 375 miles to a tank. However, you only used 3 gallons of GASOLINE (and 17 gallons of ethanol), so you are really getting 125 miles per gallon of GASOLINE.
Even if your mpg reduces your mpg to 20mpg (one-third), you get 300 miles to a tank, or 100 miles per gallon of gasoline.
Hope this helps.
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