E85, Corn, and The Volt

We talk a lot about the electric engine, plugin capability, and lithium batteries when we discuss the Volt. It is time we discussed another very important aspect of the vehicle, the fact that the combustion engine can run on E85.

E85 is a blend of 85% ethanol and 15% gasoline, not the other way around!

Due to the explosion in demand for fuel ethanol, America’s farmers have been ramping up corn production, as most of the ethanol is derived from corn. This year, U.S. farmers are expected to produce 15 billion bushels of corn. This translates into about 15 billion gallons of ethanol.  The U.S consumes 146 billion gallons of gas per year, 75 billion of this by passenger cars. So right now we are potentially capable of reducing our gasoline consumption by about 15% through using E85. Also, keep in mind, every barrel of oil consumed produces about 20 gallons of gasoline, and the U.S. consumes about 7 billion barrels of oil per year.

Now, we’ve already calculated that if every passenger car was like the Volt, and 50% of drives were less than 40 miles, 30 billion gallons of gas could be saved per year. Of the remaining 30 billion gallons, we could replace half with corn ethanol, which would result in only 15 billion gallons of gas being needed for passenger cars, a savings of 60 billion gallons of gas per year! This would translate to about 3 billion less barrels of oil per year being needed by the U.S, that’s 1/2 what were consuming now.

If we extend the electric E-flex engine to commercial vehicles, we could reduce oil consumption by 90%. Now that ain’t too corny!!

Posted by: Lyle