Do you sometimes use fuel with ethanol in your vehicle? / LJWorld.com

Asked at Massachusetts Street on September 9, 2013

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“I have a family that uses ethanol.”

— Morgan Hunter, student, Olathe

“I do. I have a van that uses diesel.”

— Meghan Riedler, graduate student, Olathe

“Yeah I’ve got a diesel truck.”

— Rylee Hunter, student, Olathe

“I don’t because there’s nowhere in my (hometown) to get it, but if there was a place I would.”

— Claire Ryan, student, Lawrence

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smileydog 4 years, 9 months ago

No. It might be less expensive but it makes up for that in poor gas mileage.

riverdrifter 4 years, 9 months ago

Good luck buying fuel that doesn't have ethanol.

Nathan Anderson 4 years, 9 months ago

Beat me to it river. I think the federal government mandates up to 10% ethanol in gasoline. Not sure on diesel fuel.

smileydog 4 years, 9 months ago

Westside 66

Sounds like everyone there is confused, including the LJW staff (as we often see) as well as the poeple they talked to. 1. Nearly all gasoline has ethanol in it. They are allowed to put in 10% ethanol without a special sign, and most stations do, since it is cheaper. 2. Diesel isn't ethanol, but just like gas, it CAN have ethanol added. I believe they have to put up a sign if they do. 3. Since ethanol makes gas mileage worse, it's not clear that it's a good idea. Also, it takes a lot of fuel (gas, usually) to make ethanol. So I don't see much reason to use it. 4. You can buy pure gas at Westside 66, kind of near the 6th street Dillons 2815 W 6th St, Lawrence

Mark Newton 4 years, 9 months ago

There is an app called Pure Gas that will show you where the closest ethanol free gas is. Westside 66 is all pure and 6th street Hy Vee premium is too. Ethanol is bad for boats and I avoid using it in any vehicle if at all possible. The government should feed people corn instead of subsidising its use in gas.

marie06 4 years, 9 months ago

The corn that is used to create ethanol is not edible to humans.

http://www.wired.com/autopia/2011/06/five-ethanol-myths-busted-2/

Mark Newton 4 years, 9 months ago

I read this but I aint buying it. The government encourages farmers to grow corn on the land where other edible food crops could be grown. Can't blame the farmers for making the most they can with their land. If the government did not susidise this there would be more food to feed the hungry people in this country. It is disgraceful that we have hungry kids in the USA and I blame the government and the people that voted for our current president for putting expensive energy and policy ahead of feeding kids.

parrothead8 4 years, 9 months ago

People aren't hungry because there's not enough food grown in the USA. There's plenty of food. People just can't afford it because of the enormous wealth disparity in this country, and the food they can afford is cheap, non-nutritious junk.

Russell Fryberger 4 years, 9 months ago

Save those extra pennies so you can put them towards fuel injectors for your car, you'll need them if you use ethanol regularly.

FlintlockRifle 4 years, 9 months ago

Yes and intake manifold ""o ring gasket"", kinda pricey

Scott Morgan 4 years, 9 months ago

In the early 90s made the huge mistake of filling up a boat tank with ethanol. Never ran right after this. Wish I had known.

imastinker 4 years, 9 months ago

Tell me about it. Spent the first day of vacation last year rebuilding a carb due to this. Ethanol is hydrophilic, and draws water into it. Gasoline with ethanol turns yellow as soon as a month after storing due to water in it. The water of course destrys everything.

hillsandtrees 4 years, 9 months ago

I couldn't figure out why our lawn mower kept failing and after several trips to the lawn mower repair, I changed to pure gas, no ethanol. No more problems. It was amazing, and the lawn mower repair people never said a thing about it might be the fuel that was causing the problems. Now I will never use ethanol in my car either.

By many calculations, it takes as much energy (fossil fuel) to make ethanol as you get out of it. It's just a way for farmers to raise the price of corn (food) and for the industry to get government (tax payer) money.