By Robert Pore
robert.pore@theindependent.com

According to the Nebraska Ethanol Board, there are more than 40,000 flex-fuel vehicles on the road in Nebraska (half of them being full-size pickups or sports utility vehicles), but the National Ethanol Vehicle Coalition says there are only 43 E85 pumps in the state.

In Nebraska, motorists use about 850 million gallons of gasoline a year. But only about 35 million gallons are E10, with E85 barely making a dent because there are so few stations.

But new research from Minnesota State University-Mankato could help increase ethanol use in Nebraska.

Researchers there have found that using E20, the 20-percent blend of ethanol, presents no compatibility issues for current vehicles or fuel dispensing equipment.

During the entire year of testing, researchers found that E20 provided power and performance similar to that of E10, through a broad range of ambient weather conditions.

According to the American Coalition for Ethanol, the new findings corroborate the results of the "optimal blend" study, released in December, that found that blends of ethanol beyond 10 percent performed well in standard, non-flex-fuel vehicles.

According to ACE, that research also found the conventional wisdom about ethanol's BTU-content mileage penalty to be unfounded.

Not only did the ethanol blends of E20 and E30 perform much better than predicted on an energy-content basis, but in three of the four vehicles tested, these mid-range blends actually offered increased fuel economy over straight gasoline, according to Brian Jennings, executive vice president of the American Coalition for Ethanol.

"The results of Minnesota's testing confirm what was found in the 'optimal blend' investigation that higher blends of ethanol can have practical application in today's vehicle fleet and can offer benefits to consumers," Jennings said.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty said that using homegrown renewable fuel is an important part of "Americanizing" the country's energy future and unhooking the country from foreign sources of oil.

"This study shows that we can safely increase the amount of ethanol blended with gasoline for use in today's vehicles," he said.

The state of Minnesota conducted the study as part of the process to meet a state law that requires that ethanol comprise 20 percent of all gasoline sold in the state beginning in 2013.

Pawlenty signed legislation that included this requirement in 2005. Minnesota and its partners will soon apply to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for a waiver to federal rules that will allow E20 to be used in all of the state's gasoline.

Currently, the EPA recognizes gasoline blended with 10 percent ethanol as an acceptable fuel for use in today's gasoline vehicle fleet.

While automakers' warranties recommend the use of E10, they also have asserted that their legacy fleet those vehicles on the road today are not capable of accommodating higher levels of ethanol.

Pawlenty said the Minnesota study addressed these concerns and found no evidence that E20 would more adversely impact technologies commonly found in vehicles on American roads today.

The optimal blend research was co-sponsored by ACE and the U.S. Department of Energy, conducted by researchers at the University of North Dakota's Energy & Environmental Research Center (EERC) and the Minnesota Center for Automotive Research (MnCAR) at Minnesota State University-Mankato.

The study examined the fuel economy of a variety of ethanol blends from straight Tier 2 gasoline up to 85-percent ethanol in four passenger cars: a Toyota Camry, Ford Fusion, flex-fuel Chevy Impala, and a standard (non-flex-fuel) Chevy Impala.

In the flex-fuel Chevy, E20 offered a 15-percent mileage increase over gasoline. In both the Ford and the Toyota, even E30 offered a 1-percent mileage increase over gasoline.

More details on the results of both research studies can be found here: http://www.ethanol.org/index.php?id=75&parentid=25