Why is Ethanol mixed fuel better than pure Gasoline

While getting your vehicle’s tank fill at some gas station, you might have always wondered what is the exact difference between Ethanol and conventional gasoline. Is it possible to use one after the other? Have you been filling your tank with a wrong fuel that can hamper the efficiency of the vehicle and in certain cases can also seize the engine.

Most of the times people prefer using a fuel that is cheaper in price, easily available and even on the recommendation of the manufacturer. Depending upon which area and country you live in, it might be difficult for you to even find regular gasoline.

But, just to save few bucks, do not let a wrong fuel ruin your engine’s performance and the efficiency of the vehicle.To know which fuel is better for your vehicle, let us learn the basic difference between Ethanol and Gasoline.

General Differences Between Gasoline and Ethanol

The most basic difference between Ethanol and Gasoline is that a gallon of gasoline aims at providing one-third more energy to the engine as compared to ethanol.

• If you blend eighty five percent of Gasoline and fifteen percent of Ethanol, this mixture is known to be approximately thirty percent less powerful than what pure gasoline could have done. Ethanol possess the similar properties in terms of power, cruising, and acceleration, but, the per gallon miles are less than gasoline.

• Gasoline in its purest form does not harm the engine and the fuel system, but ethanol does. The most common and severe problems being fuel separation and water contamination. Ethanol has a property to attract water particles and absorb them including the ones available in the air. Due to this, fuel starts contaminating inside the engine and starts affecting the performance of the engine. If the car is left in an idle position for long, fuel starts separating and gas and water forms different layers in the engine. If in any case motor sucks up the available water content, it can cause severe damage to the engine that can cost you thousands of dollars to get it repaired.

• Ethanol can corrode the fuel system as it is an alcohol. It can even rust the metal parts and crack or deform the plastic.

• Ethanol is known to serve as a fuel additive and older models of cars have problems with its functioning.

Now the question comes, if Ethanol has so many disadvantages why is it still blended with gasoline and sold in the market?

The first and the most important reason being, blended gasoline with ethanol burns cleaner air as compared to pure gasoline. It helps in reducing the emission of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. The mixture of gasoline and oxygen makes an “oxygenate” that aims in meeting the requirements of Federal Legislation act known as Clean Air Act.

Secondly, Ethanol is derived from corn which is a huge business. Agricultural business is growing too much and with the environmentalists blending with them, use of Ethanol is been spread a lot.