Is E-85 the alternative fuel for gas?

Question

Is E-85 the alternative fuel for gas?

Answer 1

Michael C's comment that ethanol is driving up food prices is flat out wrong.  The major problem with food prices and our economy at this time is the cheap American dollar.  China, India and the remaining world market is buying our grains and other commodities including diesel fuel at alarming rates.  The strong demand for our commodities is what is pushingup the prices.  Gas has dropped to 3.65 yet diesel is still at 4.69 and it is cheaper to refine...  The grain used to create ethanol is still used available for use as feed for cattle.  Only a part of the starch is extracted for ethanol production.

Answer 2

anything can be made into an alternative.  BUT, the correct question would be is E85 a cost effective alternative fuel for gasoline.  The answer to that would be NO!

Answer 3

Despite what LazyDays says, Michael C is absolutely right.  The corn producers lobby did score a huge victory in getting government subsidies to fund ethanol production.  In the beginning, ethanol sounded like a great idea.  However, as we always learn after the fact, whenever government gets involved, it somehow backfires.  We figured out corn fuel requires massive amounts of land to use for fuel that would otherwise be allocated to food production.  And when you take away much of that corn supply that went to food production initially, it reduced the supply while the demand stays the same or greater and prices increase.  It's simple economics.  Not to mention, corn actually yields less energy than it takes to produce so you're actually getting a negative return on the stuff while require massive amounts of water.  The only reason it's cheaper or on par with regular gasoline is because of the subsidies.  If people truly want alternative fuels, which eventually, I believe they will, it will come in the form of something other than corn based ethanol.  Right now, algae based bio-diesel looks to be the most promising as it yields something around 10 times the amount that corn does on the same amount of land.  But as of right now, gasoline is still the most efficient fuel we have available.  

Answer 4

That's one of them, yes. Unless your car is made to handle that, though, you'll ruin it if you use it (or so we are told.)  E-10 can go in any gas tank.  There are other alternative fuels, like biodiesel, and then there's your fuel cell and electric cars.

Answer 5

No actually these new E-85 cars get even worse gas mileage and they require lots of corn which is a fairly large and invasive crop. It is really just a green washed fuel so that the Sierra Club types can still drive their SUVs and feel good about themselves. It is not much better than that drug we are hooked on now. There is no fuel like NO FUEL!

Answer 6

No. It's just not practical. It can't be pipelined, it has huge energy requirements for production, and it's driving up food prices.

The farmer's lobby got a major score when they convinced congress and the media that ethanol was a good idea. That's where all of this comes from.

Answer 7

E85 is a fuel made from a sugars in plants...eg corn or sugar cane.  Chev offer flexfuel cars which can run solely on E85 fuel or gas.  most cars (made past the mid 80's) can run on the 10% ethanol additive in gas.   the United States is the second largest producer of ethanol gas.  corn is the main source of ethanol fuel.  the output of(energy) corn fuel is the same as producing it =.   Brazil is the #1 producer of E85 fuel.  the country uses sugar cane,  which doesn't take that energy to produce like corn.  the country has a large market of the flexfuel cars.  Brazil pushed to ethanol fuel about 30yrs ago during the 70's. the United states just doesn't offer many E85 fuel/gas stations.  plus there not a lot of the flexfuel cars on the road for what i've notice.  so yes E85 can be used as an alternative for gas....just depending on where you live.