Safety and performance
Safety
Ethanol does not pose any more risk than gasoline or diesel fuel. However, small engines such as chainsaws and outboard motors are more susceptible to water contamination, and in order to prevent corrosion and performance problems, they should be checked for water and drained if necessary before fuelling with ethanol-blended gasoline.
Vehicle performance
Using a 10 percent ethanol blend (E-10) does not significantly affect a vehicle's fuel economy or horsepower. Although 10 percent ethanol-blended gasoline contains only 97 percent of the energy of pure gasoline, this is partially compensated by the improved combustion efficiency of gasoline that the added ethanol provides. Overall, use of E-10 increases fuel consumption by an average of 2 percent compared with pure gasoline. However, this is only a slight difference when compared with other factors that have a larger impact on fuel economy. For example, driving at 120 km/h rather than 100 km/h increases fuel consumption by an average of 20 percent.
In the case of vehicles that use an 85 percent ethanol blend (E-85), automakers have equipped these vehicles with larger fuel tanks to offset the fuel's lower energy content. This way, the distance an E-85 vehicle can travel before refuelling is similar to that of a vehicle using pure gasoline.
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