E85Forum.com

specialgreen · Posted: Thu Jul 22, 2004 10:26 am Post subject: Is E85 really 85% ethanol?

I have read that E85 is "85% denatured ethanol". Ethanol is first "denatured" before leaving the distillery; for example, a nearby distiller adds 5% gasoline to the ethanol before shipping to the blender [1]. If the blender mixes the "denatured ethanol" into E85 by adding 15% gasoline, then the ethanol content would be only 80.75%.

I haven't been able to find any blenders to ask about whether they take the "denaturing" gasoline into account when they blend with gasoline. Also, I haven't found whether denaturing with 5% gasoline is standard, or whether some plants may denature with more or less gasoline. I would think that even 1% gasoline would be sufficient.

If anyone has any info about blenders, or contact info, that would be appreciated!

[1] http://www.centralmnethanol.com/index.cfm?show=10&mid=9

specialgreen · Posted: Thu Jan 13, 2005 11:18 am Post subject:

Apparently, E-85 is seasonally blended as 70% ethanol (E-70). In fact, the Iowa state Senate defined E-85 to be 70% or more ethanol from November through March [2]. I've read similar language on a State of Illinois website [3], so it may be the common practice. This would make sense for the three current E-85 test markets (Chicago, Minneapolis and Denver), but would not make much sense in (say) Texas.

[2] http://www.legis.state.ia.us/GA/80GA/Legislation/SSB/03100/SSB03102/Current.html
[3] http://www.commerce.state.il.us/com/energy/summary01.html