Can E85 Make Motorsports More Environmentally Friendly?

Over the past several years there has been a veritable tsunami of press releases from motorsports organizations around the world touting their “green” and/or “renewable” credentials.

In 2004, with no fanfare, Anglo American Oil, the European distributor of Sunoco oil, was supplying fuel with 11 percent bio-ethanol for the British Formula 3 and GT championships. The British EEMS (Energy Efficient Motorsports) initiative now points to ethanol powered accomplishments such as the first racing car to finish the Le Mans 24 Hours running 100 percent renewable fuel; the first hybrid rally car to win its class in a UK national rally championship; the first podium place in UK motorsport for E85 biofuel (British Touring Cars); first UK biofuel win (British GT3 Championship), and first car championship to run on E85 (Formula Woman).

(Click trough to read more about the role of E85 in motorsports.)

Late last year the Toyota Racing Series in New Zealand announced its open wheel series, powered by Toyota 1.8-liter four-cylinder motors, will now use “environmentally ethical” fuel with the adoption of E85.

Even the venerable IndyCar Series is proudly burning biofuel. Bobby Rahal announced the switch from methanol at the National Press Club in Washington awhile back, saying “The use of 100 percent fuel-grade ethanol makes the IndyCar Series the first in motor sports anywhere in the world to embrace a renewable and environmentally friendly fuel source.”

The high profile American Le Mans Series announced its ethanol conversion with a blast of equally high profile endorsements. Here are some excerpts from those endorsements:

“The American Le Mans Series represents a tremendous opportunity to demonstrate and educate consumers about alternative fuels and innovative, efficient automotive technologies in an interesting and dynamic way that captures the public’s attention”— Ed Wall Program Manager, Vehicle Technologies Program, Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY

“The use of E85 ethanol fuel by America’s premier production sports car racing team (Corvette) in a high-profile, high-tech racing series like the American Le Mans Series shows that Chevy is continuing to lead by example.”— Ed Peper General Manager Chevrolet, GENERAL MOTORS

“We applaud the leadership of the American Le Mans Series for its Green Racing Challenge, which has the potential to add a most timely and forward-looking environmental component to the industry’s race for optimum performance.”— Peter Schwarzenbauer President & CEO, PORSCHE CARS, NORTH AMERICA

“We applaud the American Le Mans Series for this latest green initiative. This program is an ideal complement to the Mazda ‘Sustainable Zoom-Zoom’ plan announced last year.”— Robert Davis Senior VP Marketing & Product Development, MAZDA NORTH AMERICAN OPERATIONS

“Finding economic and ecologically-sound alternatives to fuels is critical to all of us in the racing and automotive industries.”— Roger Penske Team Owner, PENSKE RACING

“When I heard that the American Le Mans Series was going even more green in 2008, I just had to be a part of it. ….The American Le Mans Series’ Green Challenge is a brilliant idea”— Lord Paul Drayson Team Principal & Driver, DRAYSON-BARWELL MOTORSPORT

Everyone, it seems, is incredibly enthusiastic and delighted to be a part of racing programs which “protect the environment” by burning recycled biomass in the form of E85. In the race to be seen as a leader in “green racing,” those claiming to be “first” in some category have been tripping over each other.

We decided to look a bit deeper into the E85 phenomena and see if the hype is backed up by fact.

First it is useful to review what “E85” means. The U.S. Department of Energy defines E85 as an alternative fuel containing 85 percent ethanol and 15 percent gasoline. Ethanol is “grain alcohol”, the more attractive, consumable sister to methanol, a traditional racing fuel. You can drink ethanol, but the gasoline in the E85 mix would give you a permanent hangover. E85 is actually “E70 – E85”. Because ethanol has a lower vapor pressure than gasoline and is therefore harder to ignite, in cold weather the percentage of gasoline must be raised to get an engine to fire, hence “E70”. The American Le Mans Series is planning (with the blessing of the DOE) an E65 blend to address the needs of their series. In addition, the specifications for the gasoline in each particular blend is open for discussion. It can be 87 octane regular or 112 octane racing fuel, or anything in between. There are also a number of chemicals that can be added to help stabilize the blend or deal with unpleasant characteristics such as corrosion. Simply put, E85 has a straight forward description, but is anything but straight forward in practice.

Going racing with alcohol is not even close to a new idea. Dragsters and formula cars running “alky” have been ripping it up for more than half a century, but burning moonshine started even earlier, shortly after the internal combustion engine was invented. Alcohol has some useful characteristics when it comes to making horsepower. It burns cooler than gasoline, which puts less thermal load on the engine and produces less of some pollutants. It contains more oxygen and has a relatively high octane rating meaning it can be compressed more before a flame front turns into an explosion (detonation). Packing lots of air/fuel mixture into a cylinder with either a supercharger or turbocharger can produce hellacious horsepower, so raw performance is not the issue. What is relatively new is the focus on the “renewable” part of the process.

Ethanol can be derived from a large number of biological sources including corn, wheat, sugar beets, rapeseed and potatoes. (Rapeseed martini, anyone?) The vast majority of the 4 billion gallons of fuel grade ethanol produced in America in 2005 came from corn and with corn averaging over $5 per bushel; more acres are being planted even as we speak. With present technology an acre will produce about 335 gallons of ethanol. Projections as high as 1500 gallons per acre are dependent upon significant advances in the weight of biomass produced per acre and the amount of ethanol extracted from each ton of biomass. To replace 85 percent of the 146 billion gallons of gasoline burned in the U.S. in 2005 using present production efficiencies, it would require something north of 370 million acres of corn. In 2008 more acres of corn will be planted than any year since WWII. The total will still be less than 100 million acres. The recent global pressure on food prices, partly a result of using corn, wheat and other crops as the base for fuel production, should come as no surprise.

It is therefore extremely unlikely that ethanol produced in the United States will significantly decrease our “petroleum dependence” any time soon. And even the continuing efforts to increase production will have substantial related costs. The amount of fuel burned by racing vehicles around the world is certainly less than .01 percent of total consumption, converting most to ethanol or ethanol blends will have undetectable impact.

How about the practical matter of building competitive machines? As noted earlier, ethanol has some useful attributes when it comes to making horsepower. With a stoichiometric (ideal) air/fuel ratio of 9:1, it is possible to make more horsepower with ethanol than gasoline (14.7:1) from a given engine displacement. However there are a number of disadvantages to be considered. At nine parts air to one part ethanol, fuel mileage with ethanol is some 30 percent less than with gasoline. The lower boiling point and lower vapor pressure contribute to starting difficulties and potential vapor lock in carbureted systems. As you certainly remember from your last cocktail party, ethanol is eminently compatible with water. Unfortunately water decreases the power output of E85 and increases the corrosive action. Ethanol tends to separate from gasoline, especially at lower temperatures where it is also most likely to absorb water, further degrading the combustion characteristics. Dealing with E85 poses problems.

Fritz Kayl, founder and president of Katech in Clinton Township, Michigan builds the engines for the Corvettes running the American Le Mans Series. He noted though “there is not a whole lot different” in the E85 engines, there are issues. Seals susceptible to alcohol are a concern but can be addressed with the proper materials. As to corrosion, many engine components are not yet specifically certified for use with E85 so Katech has acquired important proprietary information developing the motors for the ALMS Corvettes. The greater fuel consumption means the cars experience a greater change in weight from full to empty, especially in long distance events, which affects handling. Choosing the right materials for fuel tank through exhaust requires an understanding of chemistry and a flush bank account. However, the single biggest problem is knowing what E85 blend is in the tank. As noted earlier, simply saying you are running E85 is not enough information to set up a car. Tuning the cars for the specific blend is critical to making horsepower and achieving reliability. With decades of Chevrolet “bowtie racing” experience Katech is confident E85 will not slow the factory Corvettes in the slightest.

One hundred years of experience with various forms and blends of alcohol in competition the motor industry assures performance will not be a problem with E85 in motorsports.

Which brings us to the environmental benefits expected from switching even a small portion of our transportation (high speed and otherwise) to ethanol. Things don’t start off well when we remember ethanol requires a richer mixture and therefore returns reduced fuel mileage. But the picture is better when pollutants are examined, right? Well, maybe…. On a per mile driven basis and using our current vehicle technology ethanol produces more CO2 per mile than gasoline. Even if further efficiencies are gained with E85, chemistry (remember those stoichiometric numbers?) favors gasoline over ethanol for lower production of this greenhouse gas.

Air pollution is the seventh greatest cause of death in the U.S. and the pollutants from gasoline, such as benzene and butadiene, are known to increase cancer risk. Ethanol does indeed decrease the emission of benzene and butadiene however it also increases the concentrations of formaldehyde and acetaldehyde, chemicals with a cancer risk similar to those produced by burning gasoline.

Stanford professor and atmospheric scientist Mark Z. Jacobson has been studying the composition of the atmosphere in detail with the aid of a sophisticated computer model called GATOR-GCMM (Gas, Aerosol, Transport, Radiation General Circulation and Mesoscale Model). This research tool accounts for the chemical changes that take place in the atmosphere and the transport of gases across the United States. Previous models were considerably less refined and tended to simply scale the levels of measured pollutants. Measuring the broad impact on health was the focus of Dr. Jacobson’s computer runs evaluating ethanol E85. Using the Los Angeles basin as a representative population Professor Jacobson’s simulation showed switching to E85 could result in slightly higher ozone-related mortality, hospitalization, and asthma. Cancer rates from burning gasoline or E85 were similar. These are merely the results of a simulation, however well designed, but there is a large real-world “experiment” available to test the model. Brazil has approximately 5 million vehicles running on 100 percent ethanol and twice that many on a gasoline/ethanol blend under a program introduced in 1979. The pollutants predicted by the GATOR-GCMM model were indeed observed in Brazil, along with the predicted health issues.

The unforeseen consequences produced by previous broad changes to motor fuels (e.g. tetraethyl lead and methyl-tert-butyl ether (MTBE)) suggest more study is warranted before we can declare E85 an improvement over gasoline, much less our salvation in the battle for lower pollution and greater energy independence.

The Role of Motorsports

In addition to contributing to the visibility of the issues; improving fuel efficiency, working toward fuel independence and reducing atmospheric pollution, the best contribution motorsports can make is to encourage the continued exploration of alternative fuels and provide an intelligent, competent and enthusiastic environment to evaluate the various options under extreme conditions.