Ethanol In Gasoline Potentially Harmful To Millions Of Engines, Says Report

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Posted 5/16/2012 1:00 PM by Pierre Bertrand from International Business Times in Investing, Commodities

(IBTimes) - A new blend of ethanol in gasoline could cause billions of dollars' worth of in damages to millions of engines across the country, said a report released by the Coordinating Research Council on Wednesday.

Earlier in 2011, the EPA approved E15, a blend of 15 percent ethanol and 85 percent gasoline, for use in motor vehicles from 2001 to present models. Last month, the EPA approved the first applications for registering ethanol for use in making E15.

The move is designed to cut back on carbon emissions from burning gasoline and help cut the cost to consumers at the pump, but certain engines are not optimally designed to handle E15, and will hurt consumers by damaging their engines, said the CRC, a non-profit organization comprising automobile and oil companies that conducts tests for consumers.

According to the CRC's report, which tested engines built between 2001 to 2009, cars that were released earlier in the past decade are not as fit to burn E15 as later models.

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