Consumers move towards E10 fuel

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By Alborz Fallah | August 03rd, 2008

Although the price of petrol has come down in the last few days, a report published by APAC Biofuel Consultants today indicates that more and more motorists are moving towards ethanol-blended fuels.

The report shows that currently the biofuel sector is supplying roughly 3000 barrels per day to the Australian transport fuel supply, just over half the 2010 target of 350 million litres per year set by the previous government.

“The number of retail outlets selling ethanol blend has increased three-fold over the past two years, concentrating in Queensland and New South Wales and to a lesser extent in South Australia and Victoria,” APAC Consultants joint chief executive officer Mike Cochran said.

Over the past 12 months, there has been a 300 per cent rise in ethanol-blended petrol sales. Even so, we must question if this increase is due to the rising cost of petrol, or the questionable environmental benefits.

“Price would be a contributor but I think people are interested in being more environmental about their fuels and also promoting an alternative source of fuel” Mr Cochran said.

E10 fuel is a 10 per cent ethanol and 90 per cent petrol mixture, currently on sale for roughly two cents less than standard petrol.

The benefits of using E10 fuel have been under scrutiny for some time, given the CO2 produced during the development cycle as well as the impact on food supplies. More on that here.

Ethanol-blended petrol is safe for most naturally-aspirated vehicles manufactured after 1985, a full list of compatible vehicles can be found here.

Brett

i’m sure a high percentage of these people who have ‘made the move’ to E10 fuel are just pulling up to the pump and filling their cars without actually taking notice of what they’re using. Not a glowing endorsement of the fuel.
Joober

Half agree brett but there are a number who may notice somewhat, the fact that its showing around 4c cheaper than regular 91ulp, people try to save a buck no matter what.

Plus as long they know their car is ethenol safe, then nothing will make them think twice…
Reckless1

Ethanol blend is a waste of good food.

In Melbourne it’s 4c cheaper per litre, and you use 6c more of the fuel to go the same distance.

But some reports suggest all petrol has 2% ethanol as well.
Austin

It’s the only regular unleaded at the servo and only regular unleaded is allowed on the fuel card. Ethanol environmental ‘benefits’ are a bit worse than questionable, I’d say almost misleading in a complete cycle view of the fuel…
http://realcars realcars

Spot on Reckless one.

E10 at its current retail price is a false economy as u use more than u save.

Unfortunately I bet e10 gets put in the regular unleaded tank and is charged as such more often than not.

Petrol game is a blatant ripoff no matter which way u cut it and petrol companies favour themselves when it comes to the economics of E10 use not the consumer.
http://realcars realcars

biofuel is a bullshit solution in it’s current form.
http://www.chnorton.com.au Chris Norton

I think ethanol blended fuel is the way to go for a few reasons:

1. It’s cheaper.
2. It usually has a higher octane rating (~95).
3. It’s renewable.

Whilst the immediate environmental benefits may be questionable, putting more and more ethanol into our fuel is a decent short term solution as it means less oil that needs to be imported, less money going overseas, and gives us an “excuse” to run more efficient turbocharged engines.
http://realcars realcars

If e10 has a higher octane rating then why do u use more to cover the same distance?

E10 at it’s present price is a ripoff given what I have already mentioned.

If the egg heads eventually manage to use the husk and waste to produce ethanol rather than the starchy food value part then yes then bio fuel will be an achievement.
timmy201

the most stupid thing i see working at a petrol station is people who sit idling for 15 min waiting to buy $20 dollars of E10. good way to “save” about 40 cents… and at caltex in NSW its only 2.5c cheaper a litre anyway.
http://realcars realcars

Agree Timmy another false economy.
sam

How do we feed the world if we are going to use all our grain for petrol? This is not a long term solution surely….

Bren

Ethanol is a “by-product” of the process of making grain and other products, they are not using the grain it self just the by-product of the process, so no food is getting wasted. In the near future they say they are going to use everyday garbage to produce Ethanol, from banana peels to dirty nappies…great stuff I say! If you ask me E10(94RON) is a great idea and it has a better octane level than regular unleaded(91RON). I have been using it in my 1995 Commodore for over 2 years now and I have found that I get slightly better mileage than reg unleaded. All these people having a hissy fit over it… don’t use it than! I know ALL fuel is a blatant RIP-OFF but what could we do? eh. We should all not fuel our cars for a day and see what they do… just a thought

Yonny

Here’s a few facts for you:

Ethanol as produced in this country (and many others) is NOT a by-product of the grain-growing process.

The production of ethanol causes food prices to rise – often for the poorest people in the poorest countries.

The production of ethanol is only viable because of massive government subsidies (here and especially overseas).

Ethanol can be produced from garbage – but not just yet, in commercially viable quantities at a commercially viable price. You can announce this (ethanol from garbage) as a good thing when it’s true – it isn’t true at the moment.

Your car may get better mileage on E10 – but I’d want to see your methodology before I believe you (ie 500 km out a tank is NOT a rigorous scientific measure – not that I’m saying that’s what you’ve said). Also, many other people report a different story.

As to using E10 – well, people are being denied a realistic choice. Soon regular standard petrol won’t be available so to exercise choice will for most people involve using premium fuel at a much higher price. The government should allow people a real choice and sell E10 as well as regular 91 octane standard fuel.

The price difference between E10 and regular fuel is not sufficient to cover its inherent lower energy content – that is, you use more E10 to travel say 100 km than you would use regular fuel (1995 Commodores excepted, of course). In short, the price difference of 2 to 4 cents a litre barely covers the difference in consumption.

Oh, and when regular fuel is no longer available, will anyone be able to tell when the price differential disappears? That is, when all you can buy is E10 I reckon the price will increase and that woeful 2 to 4 cents a litre difference will disappear.

Lastly, petrol is not really a ripoff. Considering where the vast bulk of natural oil resides and how difficult it is to produce I reckon it’s a miracle petrol costs so little. Go to Europe and see how much they pay for fuel – you’ll see how good we have it here.

Joober

Realcars – “Petrol game is a blatant ripoff no matter which way u cut it and petrol companies favour themselves when it comes to the economics of E10 use not the consumer. ”

True. but if you take a step backwards hi-prices would be a good thing too on a infrastructure and environment and health level, imagine petrol still being so cheap, there will be more cars on the road, diesel/hybrid or any future technology will be less embraced, and we’ll have ourselves with mass congestion in our capital cities, its bad enough already… but now people are opting for PT, taking more bikes to work, buying smaller cars and calling the car manufacturers to progress in the alternative power matter. People who still require petrol for their work will still buy petrol anyway, tradies/on the roaders usually cash it all back tax time anyway.

I just think the coming to the end of the petrol era is a good thing, yes it shits me as a car driver but its doing australia, its environment and society a long term favour.

As the old saying goes.. having a car is not a right, its a privilage.
Frugal One

REALCARS -

You nailed it, we don’t have the water to make these crops for biofuel from corn.It will effect the price of food for humans and feedstock for animals [as it has in USA]

The stock that we could use is sugar, as they do in Brazil.

Vehicle needs fairly large change and not to difficult to do it.

The future for Australia is the GovCo wasnt so BRAIN-DEAD is LPG, we have over 200 years of stock on hand without looking for any new finds.

Clean and green, no need to import

Cheers

F-0
J

Ethanol has about 2/3rds the energy content of standard fuel per weight, but is slightly more dense. For E10 (10% Ethanol), this rolls into about a 3% reduction in fuel economy straight off the bat just due to energy content. At $1.50/litre, I’d expect to be paying 5c/litre less just based on this energy content only. Then work back from there as to your Enviro-value tolerance.

As an aside, I’ve often wondered why we don’t pay for petrol per kW/H, or megajoule like we do any other energy source? Paying per litre makes no sense, as energy is always based on joules-per-mass and different fuels have different mass-per-litre. If they did it would mean we always get what we pay for when it comes to dollars per kilometer, and we can discuss the benefits between differing fuels on a level playing field! And car fuel economy figures make for more easy comparison, rather than being specifically for a type of fuel? Less room for marketing depts to play if they did this, I suppose…
Joober

Agree FO, they recently discovered a new source that have enough natural gas to power the city of Melbourne like for 20 years or something…
Spitfire

Joober Says:
August 4th, 2008 at 12:13 am

As the old saying goes.. having a car is not a right, its a privilage.

The last time I checked Joober we were living in a democracy. For the same reason having a driving licence is also a right.
AnthonyM

I tried some E10 recently just out of curiosity. I purchased from my local Mobil for 2c per litre cheaper than regular unleaded…..I got 150km less out of my tank driving the same route in the same conditions at the same time of day and without changing my driving style. Rubbish!!!! My next tank was filled with Caltex Vortex 98 because I felt dirty for having tried E10.
http://realcars realcars

Wait till theres 300million cars on Chinese roads in a few years time.

We can all live in bark huts and ride push bikes and it’s not going to make a bit of difference unfortunately.

AS much I hate the concept Nuclear Power and Hydrogen powered cars is the eventual solution if we are to save this planet.

..or move half the population to MARS!!!
Glen

Why aren’t we using methanol?? Its fermented from wood so that won’t hurt our food supplies at all. Although the greenies will complain about cutting down trees THAT GROW BACK.

Realcars the octane rating of E10 is 94 RON. This rating is not an indication of how dense the fuel is but how resistant to knocking the fuel is. Premium fuel is denser than regular but being denser has the added benefit of a higher octane rating. Ethanol is more resistant to knock than gasoline, so is LPG which has a rating of 102 RON i think but I know its high. I think you’ll agree LPG isn’t dense.
rat

I have a VE UTE and have tried Caltex E10 (95 RON ?) plus normal ULP and Mobil,BP,Shell and Caltex PULP and none of them makr a difference I do the same trip 6 nights and mornings a week 135km a trip 30km is mountain roads and the rest is express with no traffic lt/100km is always 9.4-9.6 no matter which fuel and power wise I dont push it but when climbing up the hill I cant spot the differnce. In other cars I had some were cheaper to run on PULP when testing I use at least 4 tanks full.
F1MotoGP

In the last 15 min both my comments were deleted!! Why???

F1MotoGP

Now it is back again!?!?!

Jason Lee

i buy E10 (98 RON) at Freedom Fuels a big difference in my car’s performance
Sharon

Can someone please tell me (or provide a link) what we will need to do when regular unleaded petrol is no longer available to buy? I believe that in July we will no longer be able to purchase it. I find it hard enough now to find a servo that sells regular unleaded.
Jacob Martyn

Because of communism in NSW, which has banned traditional unleaded.
Andrew Slaski

I use 94Ron E10 Shell Unleaded and find that it works a whole lot better than the 91 unleaded from the same retailer, I have trialed the overall outcome and the amount I use is slightly more however the vehicle is a whole lot more happier running the E10…

I guess its fuels for the specific application – however I would hate to be owning a car that needs 95 or 98 Ron at the moment.
curious88

Hi im doing a SGP on the advantages and disadvantages of E10 fuel i was wondering if anyone could help me out with any websites or sources of information i could use. I would like to get all angles on the subject if possible i would greatly appreciate the help.