In May of this year, President Barack Obama signed a Presidential Directive with the intention of promoting the research of biofuels and improving their commercialization. His intention is to reduce American dependency on fossil fuels and promote fuels made from renewable resources. While still a Senator, Mr. Obama helped sponsor the Bio-Fuels Security Act, which although never passed, proposed phasing out purely gasoline-powered cars by the year 2016 in favor of alternatively-fueled vehicles, and it’s safe to say that this is probably a direction we will go under the current administration.
Released in the 1980’s, the flex-fuel vehicle was the first alternatively-fueled vehicle. So what is a flex-fuel vehicle and what differentiates it from a bi-fuel vehicle? A flex-fuel vehicle, simply put, is one designed to run on more then one kind fuel. In the US, this for the most part means it is designed to run on unleaded gasoline or E85 fuel, which is a mixture of 85% ethanol and 15% gasoline. There has been some successful testing on methane in flex-fuel vehicles, but to date E85 is the only flex-fuel widely available. The engine management systems in a flex-fuel vehicle have sensors to measure the amount of alcohol in the fuel and adjust things like timing and air/fuel ratio, but that is really the only thing that is different. A flex fuel vehicle should not be confused with a bi-fuel vehicle; these have more than one tank for more than one fuel source, like compressed natural gas or liquid petroleum gas, but the engine can only run on one of them at a time, not a combination of two like in a flex-fuel vehicle.
Many people have flex-fuel vehicles and don’t know it; they don’t really cost any more to make and are not any more expensive then vehicles with gasoline-only engines. Flex-fuel vehicles will have a sticker on the fuel door, a yellow fuel cap, and newer vehicles have a badge on the back designating it a flex-fuel vehicle, which is the only way an average person would be able to tell the difference. Almost all the major manufacturers have several models available with the flex-fuel option.
Some models do require that you use a special oil, so if you purchase a flex fuel vehicle, be sure to check your owners manual for their recommendations. Manufacturers say that they do not require any special maintenance, and that because the E85 burns cleaner, that you may have to do less in the way of maintenance then you would with an engine burning gasoline only.
What is ethanol and what makes it better then gasoline? Well it is made from corn, making it a domestically-producible renewable resource. That in and of itself is a huge benefit, because clearly we can all agree that we need to be less dependent on OPEC. It is also not a fossil fuel, meaning it is cleaner burning, which means fewer greenhouse gasses are produced. In addition, ethanol is water soluble, non-toxic, and biodegradable. There are some tax benefits to owning a flex-fuel vehicle, depending on where you live, so check with an accountant to find out if you qualify for any.
On the downside, ethanol is dirty and expensive to refine, it is not all that widely available at fuel stations yet (there are about 1900 stations with E85 nationwide, with a larger concentration in the midwest) and although it is generally less expensive, it is about 25% less fuel efficient than gasoline, meaning you will get fewer miles to the gallon with E85.
