Ethanol E5 & E10 Petrol is NOT a 'Green' fuel solution -
Here is a guide to how you can safely use E10 in classic cars and lawnmowers
plus some additives and alternatives to this fuel that you can use.
Many 'fact's and statements have come out explaining this new fuel but there have been many contradictions in the published information and ambiguities between articles that are confusing people.
E10 has been touted as 'the equivalent of taking 350,000 vehicles per year off the roads' - however and interestingly in comparison, illegally introduced Wild Boar released through 're-wilding' actually generate the same CO2 released by 1 million cars as they root around in the ground, releasing trapped CO2.
An airline interestingly produces in the ten minutes from take off to altitude the same CO2 output as an average family car's 10 years motoring - equivalent to 75,000 miles approximately.
What are E5 & E10 Petrol fuels:
Ok, here is a brie overview:
E5 and E10 Petrol contains added Ethanol at 5 or 10% of the content. The Ethanol is mostly derived from Sugar Beet which has been distilled to produce the alcohol (Ethanol).
Wood can be used to extract Alcohol from but it is more costly to do so. Also, Beet may be grown in poorer countries where forest may be cleared, causing food poverty and environmental damage and a big transport footprint.
This Ethanol produces its own Carbon footprint and is not really 'Green' at all - the fuel is also less volatile meaning you need to burn more to get the same performance as unleaded fuel.
Also the E10 has a shelf life of around 30 days in some cases unless treated with an additive or metal fuel tank pellet to stop its volatility degrading.
Thus disposal of unviable E10 fuel will be very wasteful and a hazardous issue for the future and local authorities are not geared up for the volumes that will be generated. Do not dispose of it on bonfires! This is highly dangerous.
Where the damage occurs to your car or garden machinery:
In storage and in your metal fuel tank, water condensation forms which runs down into the Petrol. Normally in the old unleaded Petrol this only contributes to rusting the tank from the inside.
Petrol is quite abrasive and once the interior finish coating of a fuel tank has been eroded by the fuel constantly washing over it, (steel fuel tanks have either a paint or a plated fuel tank coating) the water falls to the bottom of the tank as the fuel sits on top of it and the rusting starts when the metal is exposed with the motion of the fuel as the car is driven causing erosion of the metal too.
Petrol also seeps and 'searches' into the crystalline structure of the bare steel which can cause danger when you have to repair a fuel tank, as the Petrol is contained inside the 'fibre' of the steel.
E10 can also damage and cause failure of some plastic and fibreglass fuel tanks.
With E5 and mainly E10, the condensation water occurring in the fuel tank in say a cold garage overnight mixes with the Ethanol alcohol in the Petrol blend.
This then starts a bacterial growth, causing a sludge to form which releases a corrosive acid into the Petrol.
This acid then attacks the metal and plastic fuel system parts.The sludge also blocks fuel system parts eventually if not removed. You can stop this sludge forming with a few simple measures outlined below.
For classic vehicles the acid being present will cause some non-metal fuel lines to fail and will also do serious damage to fuel system parts leading to fires in some cases. Replace old plastic or rubber fuel lines with E10 proof lines.
If you have an older pre-2005 Petrol engined car that cannot use out of the pump E10 then use a fuel additive when you fill up that can neutralise the corrosive effects of the fuel.
If you do have to fill with E10, then add E5 Petrol at your earliest convenience and ensure that you use up the E10 in your tank within 2 weeks, for best fuel system protection. It is also advisable to use a fuel treatment additive. This often negates the Ethanol issues. Some metal alloy fuel pellets you can put into your tank also protect against the formation of the acid.
How do I get around these problems?
There are some easy steps -
1. Use E5 Petrol where possible, with the addition of a fuel additive to neutralise the Ethanol content.
2. Remove the Ethanol yourself which is fairly easy to do and then add an Octane Booster additive to the remainder of the fuel.(see method below*)
3. Use a synthetic Petrol which does not contain Ethanol. These are limited on the market at present. One brand is Aspen Fuel.
Currently Aspen synthetic fuel is intended for Garden Machinery and excise duty is possibly not applied for road use in motor vehicles so you could be fined for using it on the road -
Aspen does cost more than E5 or E10 by about 4 times. If other synthetic fuels are produced for commercial sale for road use then they will likely include excise duty and be of a comparable price to E5 & E10.
4. Put a special metal alloy fuel Pellet into the petrol tank which neutralises the effects of the Ethanol and ensures the fuel remains stable to use for years rather than 30 days of untreated fuels.
These measures of E5 and E10 Petrol damage apply to Garden Machinery and Lawnmowers too.
Aspen Petrol Fuels have a 5 year shelf life - you can leave it in your fuel tank 5 years and it will still function normally.
An additive called 'Fuel Fit' made for Briggs and Stratton also counteracts the Ethanol Petrol issues and keeps fuel in a tank or can usable for 3 years. This is designed for Petrol engined garden machinery products.
This additive should be permissible for use in motor vehicles (although other specific additives will do the same job) and is currently about 52 pence a shot. The bottle includes an internal dispenser chamber so you can measure out a shot per the dilution ratio of Petrol. The bottle contains about 5-10 shots worth and works with 4 stroke and pre-mixed 2 stroke fuels alike.
E10 Petrol fails by:
Damaging fuel system parts and can cause fuel line failure
Blocking the fuel system due to biological sludge creation from the water and Ethanol as the water combines with the bio components of the refined sugar Beet present in the Ethanol.
Needing more fuel to generate the same engine performance as enjoyed previously
E10 has as little as a 30 day shelf life meaning that at the end of a gardening season the UK will perhaps have to dispose of millions of litres of untreated, failed and unused E10 petrol that is no longer viable, in Council Refuse sites which are not geared up to handle this problem. A situation which could have been easily avoided by staying with E5 Petrol.
E10 mixing with water causes acids to form which harms and causes to fail fuel system parts metal, plastic and rubber. The acid corrode metal parts too.
*Removing the Ethanol yourself. - Do this at your own risk but it works.
Fill a proper fuel container with 'out of the pump' E10 Petrol at the garage. At home, transfer 10 litres of your E10 to a fuel proof large plastic container which has a tap.
Mix up 1 litre of water and add some blue food colouring. Mix thoroughly. Add this to your E10 Petrol in the plastic container and shake well to mix.
Leave to stand and settle overnight.
The next morning you will see a blue water layer in your barrel - drain all of this off. This blue mixture now contains water and the Ethanol from your Petrol that the Ethanol has bonded to as the Ethanol is hygroscopic (the Ethanol combines with the water readily as happens with DOT hydraulic brake fluid).
Once you drained off the blue dyed water / Ethanol mix you can add the remainder of the E10 fuel now less Ethanol to your tank and then add some Octane Booster to restore the performance to help ensure the usable shelf life of the fuel is improved beyond the 30 days of untreated fuel.
The fuel should now be safe to use and last more than 30 days shelf life of untreated E10.
If you have a lead-alloy fuel pellet or tank unit with a lead-alloy set of fuel pellets then you should not need add a fuel octane booster, depending on the alloy composition type - see your maker's instructions for the unit. Some of these units can also counteract the E10 fuel issues of bacterial sludge and acid formation fro starting.
E5 we were told would remain on sale for the foreseeable future, one source stated it would be off the market after 5 years. E10 may be gone by 2050 if the government pursues its policy of removing fossil fuels from sale. It could allow synthetic fuel use.
However, we use oil to make plastics and Fuels are a bi-product of the oil refinement process and will need to be used as the issues of storage are dangerous in large volumes.
The classic vehicle movement is worth £17 billion a year to the UK economy. It also provides a skills base that will be lost if the movement becomes a 'museum only' exhibit.
The real problem with 'climate change' is China and unless that nation modifies its reduction of CO2 output quicker, then we are frankly wasting our time as a less than 1% contributor.
As a result of the 'race to the bottom' in embracing electric cars before they are viable, we risk losing Fuelled vehicles which are becoming more efficient year on year and certainly are more cleaner at the exhaust than they were say 30 years ago.
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