INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. — Since Congress first approved the federal Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) a dozen years ago to promote biofuel, corn and ethanol interest groups have pushed to make blends higher than E10 available to drivers.

 

This has also meant working on auto manufacturers to design systems capable of burning those higher blends, like E85 (flex-fuel vehicles), and persuading both policymakers and fuel retailers it is safe and profitable to raise the ethanol percentage in everyday gasoline from 10 percent to 15 or even 30 (E15 and E30).

A few years ago, the EPA stated that vehicles model year 2001 and newer can safely burn E15; but so far, neither it nor Congress has raised the “blend wall” created by the RFS capping the yearly requirement to E10 gasoline. And without federal mandate, most gas station owners have been hesitant to go to the expense of adding or upgrading to E15 delivery systems for their pumps.

That’s changing, though. Recently, Casey’s of Iowa announced it will start selling E15 at 17 of its stations in three states. Also last week, Thorntons, Inc. Project Manager-Biofuel Matt Nichols said at the Indiana Ethanol Forum that the company is renovating 44 Chicago-area stations to sell its Unleaded15 brand of E15 by the end of 2017 (right now, 11 sell it).

This is in addition to some other regional fuel chains across the Midwest that sell E15. The first to offer it was a lone Zarco USA station in Lawrence, Kan., five years ago. Zarco USA owner Scott Zaremba spoke at the 2014 Ethanol Forum about his challenges in convincing drivers to buy E15.

Thorntons already sells E85 at 185 of its multistate stores, so it has more than passing familiarity with consumer education. While only some pumps contain E85, Nichols said at those 44 stations the Unleaded15 will be available at all pumps alongside everyday E10.

In addition to information about higher blends on its website, Thorntons trains store employees to answer basic questions and makes brochures available. Unleaded15 costs 3 cents less per gallon than E10, and by putting it at each pump, the company intends to convince the nearly 9 out of 10 buyers who drive a 2001 or newer vehicle (according to figures cited by Growth Energy CEO Emily Skor) that it’s just as safe for their engines.

“Making it a swift message like that can hopefully drive a trial (of the E15), and switching” to it, Nichols explained. He said the 3-cent discount is hopefully enough to “get your foot in the door with (using) the gas.”

The chief concern of E15 is mechanical. The bulk of 20th century engines had components that would allow the ethanol of some higher blends to leak through seals, causing damage. While E85 is such a high blend it’s marked and labeled only for flex-fuel, E15 is so close to everyday E10 that retailers’ worry has been they will be sued if someone pumps E15 and their engine malfunctions.

Nichols said Thorntons has sold Unleaded15 in more than 750,000 transactions since March 2016, with no legal repercussions.

“I think the oil industry has made a lot bigger deal of the liability than what is justified,” Ken Parrent, Indiana Corn Marketing Council ethanol program director, said of efforts to discourage acceptance of E15.

Another consideration is that EPA now limits sales of E15 from June 1-Sept. 15 to flex fuel-only vehicles, to reduce evaporative emissions during hotter months. But in the Chicago market, Nichols said sales are allowed year-round.

Earlier this month, U.S. Sen. Joe Donnelly (D-Ind.) introduced S.1239, a bill to amend the Clear Air Act with respect to this Reid vapor pressure standard to allow easier sale for blends higher than E10. It is currently in committee.

Skor said vehicles burning E15 have driven nearly 1 billion road miles in the United States, including 10 million on NASCAR tracks, to show its viability. There are 803 locations selling E15 in 29 states, and Growth Energy thinks that will double by the end of the year.

“E15 is the pathway to E30,” she said, touching on the next goal the ethanol sector is looking to promote, and that retailers updating their stations to E15 are also allowing for E30 later. “It’s the perfect concept for the consumer; it you can go from E10 to E15, you can go from E15 to E30.”

Skor, who has a background in communications, said for so long the ethanol and corn industries have focused on what selling biofuel blends does for them, for farmers and corn states. “It’s not about what it does for us,” she said,

“it’s about what it does for (the consumer).”

Drivers need to be “reintroduced” to ethanol because, she explained, 90 percent don’t really know what ethanol is and “how it makes their life just a little bit better.” The groups that would be easiest to persuade to use the fuel, she said, are women, environmentalists and Millennials.

For example, Skor said Growth Energy has taken to exhibiting at conferences and events marketed to women – because so far, the industry hasn’t thought to go to some of those venues. The goals of ethanol production are not incompatible with, say, products marketed at women’s health; Skor is willing to consider buying a product aimed at reducing air emissions.

"We have (E15 available) in the South and in the North, and we badly need it here,” Parrent observed.