Ethanol-Gasoline Blends Are Perfect for All BMW Cars...
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...and all Fords, Chevys, Dodges, Hondas, Toyotas, Kias, Mercedes...
 Marc Rauch |
Author of THE ETHNOL PAPERS and YES, TIN LIZZIE WAS AN ALCOHOLIC
Exec. Vice President/Co-Publisher
THE AUTO CHANNEL
Last week, I had the pleasure of traveling to Wichita, Kansas to learn about the great success that the Jump Start convenience store chain is having with their ethanol-gasoline fuels, in particular, their Super Premium 93 octane blend that contains 30% ethanol.
 Cheryl & Phil Near with one of their handsome pumps |
The Jump Start group of convenience stores and fueling stations number almost three dozen strong. Phil and Cheryl Near, Jump Start's owners, expect to have 40 locations by the end of this year, and their "Near" future plans include having several dozen more locations. The locations are like sparkling clean oases, brilliantly lit, and sporting an extremely attractive blue and white exterior design and signage.
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I've personally had a lot of excellent experience using higher ethanol-level fuels in non-flex fuel vehicles. Of course, I've also had a lot of excellent experience using higher ethanol-level fuels in flex fuel cars, but that's to be expected. The unexpected is the using of higher ethanol blends in vehicles that aren't normally supposed to use them - at least not in America.
However, as extensive around-the-world experience and testing has proven for more than 100 years, all spark-ignited internal combustion cars are capable of using and thriving on ethanol-gasoline blends. I've written about this in great detail in reports such as:
Indeed, my two books are centered on the subject of using ethanol to fuel internal combustion engines either on its own or in a blend with gasoline.
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While in Wichita, I was asked to speak with some local business people and community leaders about ethanol fuels. As ethanol fuel is one of my favorite subjects, I was only too happy to do so in a large group presentation and in multiple one-on-one conversations. Two of the one-on-one conversations involved well respected automobile repair shop owners. One gentlemen was already a fan of ethanol-gasoline fuels, the other gentleman wasn't a fan...at least he didn't know he was.
This repair shop owner specializes in German cars and I was accompanied by two Jump Start representatives. I talked about the use of ethanol-gasoline fuels in BMWs. The repair shop owner was thoroughly against the idea, and he mentioned a BMW in his shop that he deduced suffered from severe ethanol-related problems. I asked how he diagnosed the malady. He said it was what BMW had taught him. I asked for specifics, but he couldn't provide any except to repeat that BMW taught him that the symptoms he observed were caused by ethanol's corrosive characteristics.
I explained that his assumptions about ethanol corrosiveness couldn't be possible because ethanol is compatible with more types of rubbers, plastics, and metals than gasoline and aromatics (benzene, toluene, and xylene). Ethanol is less corrosive. I told him that the problems his customer's BMW faced stemmed from the more intense corrosiveness of gasoline and aromatics, rather than from ethanol. His friendly reply was that I should go argue with BMW, and not him. We all laughed.
As the three of us were preparing to leave, the shop owner did say that he loves Jump Start's Super Premium 93 octane gasoline, that he uses it in his own Ferrari, and that he loves the power it gives the car. His happy facial expression turned into near quizzical shock when he was told that Jump Start's Super Premium gasoline contains 30% ethanol. He didn't previously know this.
We all had another laugh.
In any event, the conversation, which was extremely cordial, did result in an interesting discovery.
When we arrived back at Jump Start's headquarters and related the conversation to Phil and Cheryl, Cheryl did a quick Google search on "BMW vehicles and ethanol fuel" just to get a feel for what BMW may have taught the repair shop owner. The number one Google search result was an article published on the RACE GERMAN website, written by the website's owner, Jacob Schaub.
Cheryl texted the link over to me. Later that day, while I was waiting at the airport for my flight home, I had the opportunity to peruse the story.
It made me laugh; it was the best laugh of the day.
Jacob Schaub's article is typical of the very many baseless, silly, and sometimes very mean anti-ethanol stories that pervade websites, social media blogs, broadcast TV and radio outlets, and auto mechanic fables. They rely on the intentional prevarications and distortions that were primarily invented by the American Petroleum Institute in the 1920s, which were then honed and beat into the American Consciousness over the next several decades.
API was founded in 1919 by various petroleum industry entities. Leading the charge for the creation of the API organization was Standard Oil's Chairman of the Board, Alfred Cotton Bedford. A.C. Bedford served as Standard Oil's Chairman until he died in 1925. Leaded gasoline was invented in 1921 by General Motors to mitigate engine knock, which was the Achilles' heel of new-fangled high compression engines developed during and after World War One. GM then partnered with Dupont chemicals (the world's largest chemical company) and Standard Oil of New Jersey (the world's largest petroleum oil company) to patent, produce, and distribute the leaded gasoline fuels. The purpose of the anti-ethanol attacks was to derail acceptance and use of ethanol's superior quality and economic competition.
Practically from the start of the Race German article, Jacob Schaub posted incorrect information. For example, Schaub writes:
"In 2005 the USA became the world's largest producer of ethanol fuel, making 15.8 billion gallons. This seems all good and dandy, but cars up to this point were not actually made to run on ethanol blends, including our BMWs. It wasn’t until about 2011 that carmakers started making cars specifically for this kind of fuel including E85, which is 85% ethanol."
In fact, America didn't become the world's largest producer of ethanol fuel in 2005, and America did not produce 15.8 billion gallons of ethanol fuel that year. The
actual number in 2005 was about 3.9 billion gallons. That same year, 2005, Brazil produced 4.02 billion gallons of ethanol fuel.
(Source: https://www.indexmundi.com/energy/?country=us&product=ethanol&graph=production)
It wasn't until 14 years later that America's ethanol fuel output reached 15.8 billion gallons.
Mr. Schaub may have pulled this incorrect information from a Wikipedia page about ethanol fuel production in America, and then carelessly combined two sentences contained at the
beginning of the page, which would have accounted for the erroneous information he proffered.
(Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethanol_fuel_in_the_United_States)
I know that this is a relatively inconsequential example of bad ethanol information, but the problem is that once you start with a little BS, you often wind up with a whole lot of it. In the next sentence, Jacob Schaub did just that. He wrote:
"It wasn’t until about 2011 that carmakers started making cars specifically for this kind of fuel, including E85 which is 85% ethanol."
In fact, car makers started making E85-capable cars more than a century earlier. Henry Ford's Model T, for instance, began being sold in 1908. The Tin Lizzie was fully capable of running on any gasoline, kerosene, or ethanol-gasoline blend up to, and including, almost pure ethanol (E98 or so). The Model T was the world's number 1 selling automobile for the next 20 years. You can learn all about this from my book "TIN LIZZIE WAS AN ALCOHOLIC." To read the book online for free, CLICK HERE.
In 1994, Ford introduced a modern E85-capable car. It was a flex fuel version of their Taurus. Shortly afterwards, GM jumped on the flex fuel bandwagon, and by January 2006 they were offering 10 or more different E85-capable vehicles: Tahoe, Yukon, Suburban, Yukon XL, Silverado, Corvette, Sierra, Avalanche, Impala, and Monte Carlo. Chrysler followed suit, as did some foreign automakers (i.e., Honda and Toyota).
Keep in mind that in the years between the Ford Model T and the 1994 Taurus, ethanol and ethanol-gasoline were being used in many parts of the world, and the vehicles that the car companies built during their regular assembly routines were all fully capable of using these alternative fuels without any modifications. These countries included Great Britain (as I already pointed out), Italy, Spain, Sweden, Finland, Australia, Brazil, France, Chile, Austria, and Germany (home of the BMW). The takeaway here is that pre-computer carburetor automobiles didn't require any special adjustments or parts to use ethanol-gasoline blends; they just needed to have the blends available.
UPPING THE ANTE ON WRONG INFORMATION
In the very next paragraph of Jacob Schaub's article, he moves from minor misinformation about ethanol fuels to major disinformation about ethanol fuels, as he crosses into claims of excessive ethanol corrosiveness.
He talks about rubber hoses used in older vehicles, and he posted a photograph that displays two pieces of rubber hoses. The hose at the top ostensibly implies a hose that was subjected only to gasoline, and the bottom hose implies a hose that was damaged by ethanol. Here's the picture he used:
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Both pieces are SAE 30R7 rubber hoses; a multipurpose fuel hose that can be used as a fuel line, PCV connection, emission control line, or fuel return line. It is specifically used with unleaded gasoline, diesel fuel, ethanol-gasoline blends including E85, and sour gas (natural gas that contains a high concentration of hydrogen sulfide, a very corrosive ingredient).
The tube of an SAE30R7 hose - that is, the material that comes in contact with the liquid that passes through it - is made from Black Nitrile (NBR). It is reinforced with a 2-spiral synthetic fiber, and the cover is Black Chlorinated Polyethylene (CPE). This hose should not be used with fuel-injected engines; it is meant for carbureted engines - which means this is correct for older cars, such as a classic BMW. This description alone should verify that ethanol would not have damaged the hose.
PROOF: TEXT BOOK STYLE
However, I'll expound on SAE30R7 hoses a bit more, which will explain why ethanol is the perfect fuel to use with this rubber. I'll do it with the help of a couple of compatibility charts that I typically use in my published reports. One such report that contains the compatibility charts is:
According to the compatibility charts provided by CUSTOM ADVANCED CONNECTIONS (follow the link contained in the "Small Engines" story), nitrile (NBR) is recommended for use with ethanol (it has an A rating); it is not recommended for use with benzene (it has a D rating); it is okay for use with gasoline (B rating); not recommended for use with toluene (D rating); and is not recommended for use with xylene (D rating). Remember, all gasoline contains benzene, toluene, and xylene. Gasoline can not be made without those ingredients as part of the gasoline formula.
In the compatibility chart provided by GRACO, they don't rate natural nitrile (NBR), they rate synthetic nitriles (TS & TPE), which could be substituted for nitrile NBR in some situations. This chart gives ethanol an A rating for both nitrile TS & nitrile TPE. It gives unleaded gasoline, benzene, toluene, and xylene ratings of D and C for nitrile TS & nitrile TPE, respectively.
There are other compatibility charts on the Internet. Some don't agree completely with the above results, but they all consistently show that ethanol is rated higher and is more compatible with nitrile rubber (NBR) than the combination of benzene, toluene, and xylene.
In addition, the rubber rings and seals used in engines that use nitrile hoses are also nitrile (NBR) rubber, so these components are equally better attuned to ethanol than gasoline and aromatics. If you evaluate natural rubber (as used in very old automobile engines, ethanol is always much more compatible with natural rubber than benzene, toluene, xylene, and gasoline.
Comsequently, if SAE 30R7 rubber is to decay, it is FAR MORE LIKELY to have been damaged by the aromatic ingredients in gasoline than by ethanol.
PROOF: REAL WORLD STYLE
The use of Compatibility Charts are obviously extremely helpful in understanding classroom corrosion comparisons. Just as important, perhaps more important, is knowledge of the practical, real-world experience that has proven ethanol's capabilities compared to gasoline. A common misconception is that ethanol fuels were thrust onto the public a mere 20 years ago, and that ethanol fuel has not been tested sufficiently, or that somehow a change in the color design of a fuel tank cap might validate or invalidate how an engine performs when fueled by ethanol. Nothing, absolutely nothing, could be further from the truth.
In my two reports that I cited earlier in this paper, about ethanol use in Great Britain and Brazil, it should be clear to all that no further testing needs to be conducted to immediately approve higher ethanol level use in all spark-ignited internal combustion engines.
Simply put, if all the world's automobiles could have safely, cleanly, and economically be driven on the streets of Rio de Janeiro and London for many decades using ethanol-gasoline blends (including higher level ethanol-gasoline blends), then all the world's automobiles can be safely, cleanly, and economically driven on any street in the USA and all other countries. This means that even the boneheads at California Air Resources Board should knock off their feigned resistance to ethanol. Argonne National Laboratory and the EPA have already acknowledged in 2010 that E15 and E20 is good-to-go. The reality is that all "gasoline-powered" vehicles are virtually flexible-fuel vehicles, regardless of age or manufacturer.
But, if anyone needs additional proof of real-world experience with the safety and effectiveness of ethanol fuels, then I point to the work done by my friend, Professor Bill Kovarik, in compiling an exhaustive list of who, what, and where ethanol fuels were used over the past 150 years:
Moreover, when I was doing research for my papers on the use of ethanol fuel in Great Britain and Brazil, I was extremely curious to see how much negative reaction I would find to using ethanol. After all, if there were any truth to contemporary complaints about ethanol fuels, then it stands to reason that there would have been hundreds, maybe thousands, of critical reports done by the print and broadcast media. I scoured the Internet, reviewed my personal library (roughly 5 dozen different fuel-related books), and checked with my peer-review coterie. There was nothing. I did find positive articles about ethanol fuel, but no negative articles.
CONCLUSION
The only question that could be asked, or statement made vis-à-vis the purpose of this report (determining whether BMW vehicles are especially vulnerable to ethanol fuels), would
be to suggest that there were never any BMW vehicles on the roads in Great Britain, Italy, Spain, Sweden, Finland, Australia, Brazil, France, Chile, Austria, and Germany during the past century,
so they weren't exposed to the hazards of ethanol.
Such a query is, of course, absurdly ridiculous. BMW vehicles did drive the roads of these countries 30, 40, 50 years ago, just as they do today. The minimum mandated ethanol-gasoline blend
used in Brazil today is E30. Brazil's history of mandating E20 and higher fuels dates back to 1978. New, used, and classic BMWs are on the road in Brazil right now, as you read this report.
If you doubt it, visit the websites of these two used car dealerships in Brazil:
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• https://lista.mercadolivre.com.br/bmw-1980-antiga
• https://www.webmotors.com.br/carros/estoque/bmw/325i/de.1987?tipoveiculo=carros&marca1=bmw&modelo1=325i&anode=1987&page=1
As I stated in the headline of this report, "Ethanol-Gasoline Blends Are Perfect for All BMW Cars, as well as all the internal combustion vehicles made by Ford, Chevrolet, Dodge, Chrysler, Honda, Toyota, Kia, Mercedes-Benz, Ferrari, Audi, Nissan, Cadillac, Rolls-Royce, Land Rover, Range Rover, Fiat, Seat, Volvo, Lincoln, Aston Martin, Alfa Romeo, Hyundai, Infiniti, Jaguar, Lamborghini, Maserati, etc., etc.
And, once again, I say: If these cars can safely, cleanly, and economically use high-level ethanol-gasoline blends on Brazilian roads, then they can all safely, cleanly, and economically use high-level ethanol-gasoline blends everywhere else in the world.
Someone tell BMW I'm waiting for them to argue with me!