Higher ethanol blends approved for Renergie

Last week, 10/12 Weekly reported on the struggles faced by manufacturers of corn-based ethanol, including high raw material prices and a stabilizing oil market. We also mentioned that ethanol interests were in the process of pushing for higher blends from Congress. Presently, there’s a 10% cap on the amount of ethanol that can be used in vehicles, and upping it would be a boon for the industry. The Environmental Protection Agency has been testing higher blends for performance for some time and EPA officials announced over the weekend that Kaplan-based Renergie has been approved for a related test program – the first of its kind in the U.S. Through its decentralized network of small advanced biofuel manufacturing facilities, Renergie produces ethanol solely from sweet sorghum juice. Under the test program, Renergie will use variable blending pumps, rather than splash blending, to precisely dispense hydrous ethanol blends of E10, E20, E30, and E85 into test vehicles. The company will be looking at fuel economy, engine emissions and vehicle drivability. There will be 60 vehicles used during the 15-month test run. “Louisiana is the first state to enact alternative transportation fuel legislation that includes a variable blending pump pilot program and a hydrous ethanol pilot program,” says Meaghan M. Donovan, founder of Renergie. “By blending fuel-grade ethanol with gasoline, via blending pumps at its gas stations, Renergie will offer the consumer a fuel that is renewable, competitively-priced, cleaner, and more efficient than unleaded gasoline.” In the U.S., the primary method for blending ethanol into gasoline is splash blending. The ethanol is “splashed” into the gasoline either in a tanker truck or sometimes into a storage tank of a retail station. Donovan says the inaccuracy and manipulation of splash blending may be eliminated by precisely blending the ethanol and unleaded gasoline at the point of consumption. She adds that a variable blending pump would also ensure the consumer that E10 means the fuel entering the fuel tank of the consumer’s vehicle is 10% ethanol and 90% gasoline, rather than the current arbitrary range of 4% to 24% ethanol that splashing often leads to. – Jeremy Alford