1. Question: What is Ethanol?

Answer: Ethanol (which is also called ethyl alcohol or grain alcohol, and abbreviated as EtOH) is an alcohol-based alternative fuel that is blended with gasoline to produce a fuel with a higher octane rating and fewer harmful emissions than unblended gasoline.

2. Question: How Does Ethanol Performance Compare to Gasoline?

Answer: One gallon of pure ethanol contains about 66 percent as much energy as a gallon of gasoline. A gallon of E85, a common blend of 85 percent ethanol and 15 percent gasoline, contains about 71 percent as much energy as a gallon of unblended gasoline.
Drivers who use E85 can expect about 15 percent less fuel economy than they would get with gasoline. Other performance factors such as power, acceleration, and cruising speed are essentially equivalent in vehicles burning E85 and conventional fuels.

3. Question: Where Can You Buy Ethanol?

Answer: Fueling stations that carry E85, a blend of 85 percent ethanol and 15 percent gasoline, are available in every U.S. state. Altogether, more than 900 public E85 fueling stations are available across the United States, although the majority are located in the Midwest.

Flexible fuel vehicles that use E85 are also widely available. As of 2005, the National Ethanol Vehicle Coalition estimated that approximately 5 million flexible fuel vehicles have already been sold in the United States, although many buyers don’t realize they could be using E85 in their cars and trucks.

4. Question: What are the Benefits of Using Ethanol?

Answer: Using ethanol as an alternative to gasoline provides several key benefits.

• Overall, ethanol is considered to be better for the environment than gasoline. Ethanol-fueled vehicles produce lower carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide emissions, and the same or lower levels of hydrocarbon and oxides of nitrogen emissions.
• E85, a blend of 85 percent ethanol and 15 percent gasoline, also has fewer volatile components than gasoline, which means fewer emissions from evaporation.
• Adding ethanol to gasoline in lower percentages, such as 10 percent ethanol and 90 percent gasoline (E10), reduces carbon monoxide emissions from the gasoline and improves fuel octane.

5. Question: How Much Does it Cost to Use Ethanol?

Answer: A gallon of E85, a blend of 85 percent ethanol and 15 percent gasoline, usually costs about the same as a gallon of regular gasoline, although prices may vary somewhat depending on location.