The Dutch Automobile Association (ANWB) recently released the preliminary results of a series of stress tests performed on various vehicles using E10 biofuel (10% ethanol and 90% gasoline). In many European countries this mixture is allowed legally without being especially labelled, among other reasons to achieve the European 2020 targets for the uptake of biofuels by the transport sector. However, some manufacturers insist on recommending avoiding E10 for use in their vehicles, whereby this type of testing is required to verify its safety and to reassure drivers.
ANWB, together with the German ADAC and other similar associations in Europe, check whether there is any damage to the engine and if it can be blamed on E10. One of the first considerations is to confirm that vehicles filled with this biofuel, even when it is not recommended by the manufacturer, have not suffered any problems. Meanwhile, they do recommend not using this fuel if there is any doubt.
Vehicles consume no more using E10 than 95E or the 98E5 petrol
Another recent study highlighting the positive qualities of E10 has been conducted by the Technical Research Centre of Finland (VTT in Finnish). In this case, to try to prove whether it is true that, as some argue, cars run on E10 consume more fuel than those using the traditional 98-octane gasoline. The VTT has found that consumption is no higher with E10. To be more precise, Juhani Laurikko, a researcher at VTT, says that "the study concluded that no significant differences fuel consumption were detected for any of the varieties".
The VTT measurements show that the cars tested used an average of 10.30 litres of 95E10 per 100 km, as opposed to 10.23 litres of 98E5 per 100 km. The difference was 0.07 in favour of 98E5 on average, meaning that using 95E10 petrol, which has a higher ethanol content, increases consumption by 0.7%. Normalising measurement results of each individual test run with observed slight scatter in actual total work done over the driving cycle yields to somewhat higher overall difference, 1.0%.
The portal Helsingin Sanomat reported that this latest study was presented at an event held on Tuesday 17 May by the company St1, a Finnish producer of ethanol from different feedstocks, including waste. During the presentation, Laurikko was blunt: "The general thinking about the energy densities of E10 and 98 varieties is false, since in reality the difference is less than 0.8% for gasoline 98". To underline this statement, he recalled that the Finnish oil company Neste Oil, which produces both fuels, had corroborated these data. http://www.vtt.fi/?lang=en http://www.vtt.fi/news/2011/06062011_E10_ja_E5-bensiinilaaduilla_ei_merkittavaa_eroa.jsp
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