Alternative Energy Source: Ethanol

Ethanol, as we’ve already addressed is basically 85 percent grain alcohol and 15 percent gasoline. It is a cleaner burning fuel and provides more horsepower than gasoline alone. While ethanol burns cooler than gasoline, it doesn’t provide enough power to get an engine started on cold days which is why gasoline is added to the mixture.

With the rising popularity of E85 gasoline, more vehicles are being produced that can accommodate this new fuel. E85 fueling stations are currently available in 36 states (as of 2006), and over 6 million vehicles that can use E85 have been sold. The performance of E85 vehicles is potentially higher than that of gasoline vehicles because E85's high octane rating allows a much higher compression ratio, which translates into higher thermodynamic efficiency. However, the flex-fuel vehicles (FFVs) that retain the capacity to run on gasoline alone can't really take advantage of this octane boost since they also need to be able to run on pump-grade gasoline.