E85 vs Gas

E85 vs Gasoline experiment shows the difference in clean burning fuel and fuel which pollutes the air.

[Sixrabbbit]

To add to the benefits of ethanol: ethanol vapors are not harmful, carcinogenic or toxic. Ethanol can be carried in any type of container, unlike gasoline. Ethanol spills are not hazardous to the environment.

[tylarhaugan]

a lot of people complain that e85 uses more fuel. who cares if your going for e85 your going for more horsepower not fuel economy

[Mcleadslinger]

So many uniformed people commenting about E85. My 2017 mustang GT is Tuned by Lund racing on E85.. modern fuel systems are not damaged by E85 and tuned correctly, itallowsfor more timing, burns cleaner, has a cooler combustion which recuces detonation and is almost half the price of 93. E85 is over 100 octane and is widely used in performance cars.

[chazmuska]

E85 does wonders for high compression engines (ie. FRS 12.5:1) or any forced induction cars. You can really advanced the timing without getting knock. Increase HP! Sure you need to burn a little more but with the added HP you also don't have to rev as high to get going. I'm still averaging about 28 mpg (and I punch it at least once a day!) in my FRS! I love this fuel! So if you put this in a low compression engine and don't do anything with the timing, you're pretty much not going to see any difference!

[Friedermanns]

Very clear and real comparison. I was looking for this. Thanks ! Thumb up.

[Sixrabbbit]

Ethanol does not clog your carb, the varnish and sludge from gas clogs your carb

[roflex]

The stoich ratio of ethanol to oxygen is 9:1, the stoich ratio of gasoline is 14.7:1 this means the gasoline is going to have far less complete combustion in this example. If you for example doubled the air pressure in the gasoline example so normalise the stoich ratios, the combustion would be much cleaner. This test is extremely misleading.

[lexustech]

E85 has an octane rating of about 109. E54 has a rating of 100 octane. That's race gas levels of anti-knock power. Yes, it has a lower stoich point than gasoline. But it has FAR more octane and is VASTLY cleaner as a fuel than gasoline.

The ability to run a LOT more ignition timing in addition to boost is what makes ethanol so potent.

Also, ethanol being an alcohol has a cooling effect on the air charge as its injected into the intake runner. Similar to methanol injection, except safe.

Cooler air charge means.. yep MORE IGNITION TIMING can be added.

[TheAutoChannel]

Great video, thanks for creating it and posting it.

[robitaill]

The black residue in the glass of the gasoline is what turns your engine oil black as it gets used

[cartermackenzie]

I feel like the cons of ethanol are are mostly caused by beaucratic regulation and the fact consumers don’t understand it….

[Joshtheweatherman]

For those who don’t know, no you cannot run E85 in a normal car unless the gas cap says E85. It’s like trying to run diesel in a gas engine. You can run it with the proper tune, or conversion system. But you’re looking at nearly a grand to do that. You will also have to replace the injectors with E85 compatible ones. If you have a naturally aspirated engine, you will be lucky to see maybe a 10 hp gain.

[williamburch]

Very good demonstration but I'm pretty sure ethanol is much less efficient. The reason why it burned slower was because it has lower energy density, thus making it less efficient and requiring more fuel to run at a comparable power out put. However, it does burn much cleaner and has a very popular name in the car enthusiast comunity as it has outstanding knock or preignition qualities which can be extremely helpful when raising compression pressures with things like turbo chargers.

I was shocked how much cleaner it was... Very interesting clip

[joaomariocottas]

Congrats for this interesting video and just help explaining, with this E-85 fuel we are not 100% sure thats its really 85% ethanol and just 15% gasoline so thats why we can see a little yellow flame when this E85 is burning.
But if we burn a 100% ethanol instead of E-85, the flames collor is light blue with no yellow flames.

[justinmancuso]

I don’t get why some people think this test means nothing. E85 burns cleaner not only here but in an engine as well, this is not misleading because this is still a very general but accurate depiction of the difference between e85 and gas in a car. E85 burns cleaner than gas. Simple as that

[DaddyEric]

I can make a very good argument that E85 is much worse for the environment when used as a replacement for regular gas.

1. Less BTU's per gallon, meaning you have to burn more to get the same results. Keep this in mind for the next point.
2. Greater environmental impact from creating the fuel, E85 usually from corn, corn needs to be grown, so already we aren't eating a very nutritious food when there is hunger all over the world. But also growing corn requires fertilizers, which need to be produced somewhere, they also have run off into local waterways. Corn needs to be harvested, lots of tractors which require fuel. Transportation, breaking down corn into something that can be refined into E85.
3. Much worse MPG, which you could have figured from less BTU's. Consumer reports says about 5 mpg less on a 20mpg car while producing the same number of hydrocarbons.

[DarkSpartan]

I think our definitions of efficient are vastly different.

[roflex]

Another example, if you burn methanol next to ethanol it burns completely clear looking even cleaner than ethanol. The reality is methanol has a stoich ratio of 6.7:1, hence it is getting much closer to stoich combustion in atmospheric conditions. The reality is if you get stoich combustion of ethanol, methanol or gasoline they all burn cleanly with no black fumes.

[Adplusamequalsadam]

The term "efficient" is slightly misleading here, you get less miles per gallon using ethanol. Also natural gas is burned in the process of making ethanol.

[nephetula]

E85 gives about 20% less mileage, so that makes it no cheaper than gas. Also, most people aren't aware that the government presently subsidizes ethanol production. If that subsidy ever goes away, the E85 price will go up by about a dollar per gallon. Use of E85 also makes the price of all other corn products higher, as food corn competes with fuel corn. (The more corn used for alcohol production, the less there is available for food.)