ethanol

The Department of Energy has hit out at the recent Coordinating Research Council study into damage caused by using E15 gasoline. In its rebuttal, the DoE points out several flaws in the CRC's study, and says the Council failed to establish a proper control group to determine the statistical...

A new study released today by the Coordinating Research Council says that E15 gasoline, which contains 15 percent ethanol, could damage the engines of certain high-volume car and truck models. The two-year study was conducted on eight different engines from the 2001 through 2009 model years, with a...

Ethanol has been problematic for several years now. Promoted as a way for the U.S. to grow its own vehicle fuel, the alcohol was so popular several years ago that Congress passed a Federal Renewable Fuels Standard as part of the 2007 Energy Independence and Security Act. Now Hart Energy has issued...

On the face of it, biofuels seem like an ideal short to medium-term solution for reducing our reliance on fossil fuels. After all, they could not only be grown at home--reducing dependence on foreign oil--but growing crops is also a renewable process, and net CO2 emissions are lower than burning...

Ferraris aren't typically known for their green credentials. In fact, they tend to be known for everything but green credentials: High performance, for example. High-revving V-8 and V-12 engines. Being painted very, very red. Not being painted green. Most methods of extracting greater power from...

When the U.S. Congress adjourned for the holidays on Friday, December 23, its departure sealed the fate of subsidized ethanol production. During its session, the Congress did not renew a tax break for U.S. production of corn-based ethanol that had become increasingly unpopular across a wide area of...

Despite millions of dollars of commitment from automakers like Ford and General Motors, finding somewhere to fill your flex-fuel car with E85 is now officially harder than finding somewhere to recharge a plug-in car. In fact, according to Bloomberg, the number of electric car charging stations in...

You call it "corn", we call it "fuel" -- at least in the United States. Recent statistics show that, for the first time in history, America is using more corn to fill gas tanks than to fill the bellies of either humans or livestock. Corn in history For Americans, corn has long been tied to our...

E15 gasoline has been much in the news lately, but all the hullabaloo may have been a bit premature. The U.S. Government Accounting Office, better known as The Gummint's in-house auditor, says that E15 won't appear at the pumps until sometime next year. Just because the EPA has allowed the sale of...

Ah, ethanol, that most political of alternative fuels. Farmers love it, deficit hawks hate it, automakers want it for flex-fuel CAFE credits but nowhere else, and environmentalists only want it if it doesn't suck up food supplies, use too much water, or worsen the carbon balance. Yesterday, EPA...

They're not pretty, but they should catch your attention. Yesterday, the Environmental Protection Agency issued its design for a warning label to be placed on so-called pumps that dispense the new gasoline blend, which contains a higher ethanol content. Although the legal status of E15 gasoline may...

The once-unthinkable actually happened last Thursday: The U.S. Senate voted 73-27 to abolish a 45-cents-per-gallon subsidy to the U.S. ethanol industry. Immediately. Because the amendment to end ethanol credits is attached to a stalled economic development bill, however, it will have little...

Let's be real: How many of you out there have ever driven a single mile on E85 ethanol fuel? Very, very, very few of you, most likely. The fuel composed of 85 percent ethanol blended with 15 percent gasoline is available only in a handful of Midwestern states. Yet a bill now under consideration by...

While the legal status of E15 gasoline is in doubt, the Environmental Protection Agency is moving forward with plans for it to roll out before this summer's driving season. That means that drivers will have to pay attention to the labels on their gas pumps, making sure that E15 is only used for...

The latest episode in the long-running drama over whether U.S. drivers will be offered gasoline with more ethanol in it came very early Saturday morning. The House of Representatives adopted an amendment to a continuing resolution on Federal spending through September 30 that would bar the U.S...

Every major automaker selling cars in the U.S. has signed onto a lawsuit filed Monday aimed at halting the rollout of E15 gasoline, which has a higher proportion of ethanol (15 percent) than today's E10 gasoline. The companies cite fears that the greater concentration of ethanol will damage engines...

Even if you may not have heard of the Peak Oil theory, everyone knows that we'll continue to use more and more gasoline in years to come. Right? Well, errrrr, no. Maybe not. At least, that's the conclusion of both industry analysts and the oil companies themselves. The peak year for U.S. gasoline...

Yesterday, the Environmental Protection Agency approved raising the proportion of ethanol in pump gasoline from 10 percent (E10) to as much as 15 percent (E15). It would be the first increase in ethanol percentage since 1978, when the 10-percent blend was approved. Roughly 70 percent of U.S...

E-Fuel is one of 70 companies chosen by VentureBeat to launch at the DEMO Fall 2010 event taking place this week in Silicon Valley. After our selection, the companies pay a fee to present. Our coverage of them remains objective. In the renewable energy sector, customers face a variety of options...

After many months of testing, qualifying, and mechanical challenges--not to mention reams of press releases--today the Progressive Automotive X-Prize announced the winners of its three categories, who will split $10 million in prize money. Both winners in the "alternative" classes for two-passenger...