United Petroleum in Australia has released their nation wide PLUS ULP in a bid to promote renewable energies. The company claims that the mix (concentration of 10% ethanol or less) increases its octane rating higher than regular unleaded and its also cheaper than all the other fuel prices. So its got a higher octane rating, its cheaper to use and its also partially (not significantly obviously) environmentally friendly.




I think that the US has had more experience of this ethanol/fuel mix for cars so are their any downsides to it? I started using it on my tib and no problems thus far (600+km's or so).

I also did some extra research and since ethanol is a solvent it can apparently clean the internal components of your engine system.

Any comments or previous disasters of using ethanol mixed fuels (remember this particular mix has a concentration of 10% ethanol or less.)

I just did a 7000 km trip in my 03 tuscani from British Columbia Canada to Nova Scotia Canada my girl and I went through the States to get there,Its the first time I've ever had to use blended gas and it sucked!!! It gave my engine a hard time with less power and some crazy readings on the trip computer,such as when i would fill up it would read up to 800 km till empty,I WISH, it also caused rough Idle.I spent time driving around looking for straight gas.I would also like to point out if its blended with cheaper crap why do we still pay as much!!!

 

I have been having a similar problem as yours, its not as extreme but when the tank is near empty, the trip computer has trouble adjusting accurately, most times reading 100+km's left till empty. I wonder why that is so?

 

yeah my chem teacher and i talked about it, ethanol burns so much colder, that it can leave gunk in your engine that usually gets burned out with pure gasoline. plus ethanol can't raise the octane unless it has some sort of reaction in which the ethanol converts something to octane, which wouldnt be a good thing. plus i dont think it can unlees they're just bsing you because ethanol is C2H5OH and octane is C8H18, where does the Oxygen go. i think they're pumpin you full of ****

 

This is the website of the company:

http://www.unitedpetroleum.com.au/index.asp?pgID=66

Some benefits:

http://www.friendsofethanol.com/facts.html

Ethanol contains 35% oxygen and when blended with petrol (E10) results in a more even and complete combustion of the fuels.

 

Yes, ethanol does raise the octane rating, No it doesn't add horsepower to our cars, hell using higher octane of 100% gasoline doesn't add HP.

Downside, Ethanol is not as efficient, it drops your millage. Cost drop? I don't see it sooooo?

It is renewable though, and supposedly better for the environment emission wise, but I haven't figures on that.

 

Yeah, I guess the HP comment is just a little marketing ploy to get more people interested. Its quite a big thing here in Aus, its just recently been introduced and there is a lot of interest being generated, I was just wondering if other countries have done the same with success in the long run. I have been using it recently because of the benefits to the environment and because it has a higher octane rating than unleaded and its cheaper :3_wink: I think if the fuel was used by a large portion of Australia's population, the environmental benefits could be substantial but again just my opinion.

 

OZ would benefit much more by switching off of their near 100% coal energy generation, compared to the US Oz doesn't have near as many drivers or the amount of roads, So the environmental impact isn't nearly that great, compared to their horrible use of coal powered plants to generate almost all of their energy needs.

The octane thing is only really useful in turbo cars, which makes it popular for the falcon anyways.

 

With all the corn surrounding us, I've been using ethanol blends (5, 10%) for about 15 years... I never noticed any negative or positive results from using it... it's just gas... but these cars were used to it. I can see that it might be different if your car is getting ethanol for the first time.

Price wise, I've seen it like this:

89 octane ethanol $2.80
87 octane, no ethanol $2.90

 

In our fair city they only sell gas here blended with 10% ethanol. We have been over this in previous threads in regards to the ethanol debate, please search to find those posts. As I said prior in my posts MPG has never been affected, engine performance is still the same, and gas price is slightly less than normal. Also the air quality for the city has been said to be on the upswing, however I could never confirm this statement.

In the counties outside of mine they sell straight gas so I do get to use both very frequently and have tested the two side by side many times.

 

In our fair city they only sell gas here blended with 10% ethanol. We have been over this in previous threads in regards to the ethanol debate, please search to find those posts. As I said prior in my posts MPG has never been affected, engine performance is still the same, and gas price is slightly less than normal. Also the air quality for the city has been said to be on the upswing, however I could never confirm this statement.

In the counties outside of mine they sell straight gas so I do get to use both very frequently and have tested the two side by side many times.

I have used both types of fuel and never could tell any difference at all either. Some people read on the net that it makes a difference and then when they try it they "think" that it effects their car. Just like people thinking seafoam gives their car mad tyte hp when it does nothing but risk ruining your O2 sensors and spark plugs. There may be +/- .0000001% difference in power between the 2 fuels, lol. Either works just fine in pretty much any car ever made to run on unleaded.

 

Down here in HotRod heaven,...lol....you can still find the unblended feul all over the place.
I read, as was also stated earlier, that Ethenol leaves residual, sticky traces behind that can cause problems later on.