SYRACUSE, NY – The EPA recently granted stations the use of E-15 gas. For years now, Gas has been mixed with a 10% blend of ethanol. Now, the newest blend available of Ethanol-Gasoline will be 15:85. The idea is cleaner emissions.
And sustainability. Ethanol comes from corn – something Central New Yorkers know a lot about.
“Ethanol has more energy,” Dr. Thomas Amidon said. “That means you get more heat and more combustion.”
Amidon said the hotter the fuel burns the more likely all of the fuel and it’s vapor will be used. And if everyhting is used there will be fewer of the unwanted pollutants extiing the tailpipe.
The greenish hue of this new technology isn’t only a cleaner environment. It can be given to the cost of using the fuel in a car that isn’t designed for it.
“In older cars, a lot of components in [the] fuel system and [the] motor are not designed to use this type of fuel,” Tony Masello, owner of Masello’s Auto Service said. “Older cars fuel lines are made of rubber and the ethanol eats right through it.”
And the trouble isn’t felt immediatly. The effects take time and can end up costing motorists a lot of money.
Masello said in older vehicles the ethanol can clean the rust out of a gas tank and, through the fuel lines, deposited it into the engine.
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