INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. — For several years, ethanol advocates have tried to educate and incentivize drivers to buy – and persuade the federal government and gas station owners to mandate and offer – varying levels of the biofuel.

Most gasoline in the United States carries a 10 percent, or E10, ethanol blend with 90 percent petroleum. These advocates have tried marketing E85 with limited success, as even flex fuel vehicle (FFV) owners aren’t buying as much as ethanol advocates would like.

A few years ago, they focused energy on trying to get the U.S. EPA to raise the E10 federal mandate to E15 – as yet, to no avail.

The theme of this month’s sixth annual Indiana Ethanol Forum was “Fueling the Future” but it could easily have been “Mid-Level May Madness” instead. Speakers focused on the viability of offering mid-level ethanol blends such as E25-E40 at the pump in the next two decades – and seeing enough vehicles on the road able to burn the fuel.

“What we would like to see is E30 dial down the amount of ethanol you’re putting into every gallon,” said Tim Theiss, who works in research for the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) north of Knoxville, Tenn.

If this were to be done, he said, would more people whose vehicles can burn that level be willing to buy a mid-level blend like E30 than are purchasing E85? And would it be enough more to make up for blending less than half the amount of ethanol?

One of the larger retailers of E85 in the Midwest, Thornton’s, has 181 stores in several states, including Indiana. Nine of the Hoosier locations offer E30 alongside E85 and E10. Greg Crowe of Thornton’s said the chain markets E85 aggressively, and one of the biggest hurdles employees face is trying to educate consumers about its use.

The company prints brochures for all stores, sponsors lowered-price days for advanced biofuel buyers and holds promotional events at its stores. He said Thornton’s has even reached out to the U.S. Postal Service with a 10-cent discount as incentive to buy E85 from its stores for its FFVs. (Postmasters have explained since USPS drivers with FFVs are contractors who own their own vehicles and buy their own gas, they can only pass the message along to those drivers, not mandate that purchase.)

Something else Crowe said Thornton’s has done is reached out to auto dealerships with discount promotions, in an effort to boost demand for ethanol among their vehicle buyers. This does not always work; in fact, he’s come across drivers who say some dealer mechanics, rather than promote ethanol, have told them to only fuel FFV cars once a month with E15 or higher – and not to use it at all in the FFV trucks.

Barrier to E15 ‘overstated’

Theiss said he has found parts in the gas pump dispensers for E10 seem to be compatible to hold up to an E25 blend (higher concentrates of ethanol leach through some older-manufactured seal materials, which is part of why there’s such debate about the safety of using blends above E10 in older vehicles) – so the cost of stations installing E25 pumps should be similar to E10 equipment.

“The barrier (to the ability to sell higher blends) has been overstated,” he said.

Why this matters was when Ron Lamberty of the American Coalition for Ethanol, who moderated a panel with these speakers at the Forum, pointed out a number of gas station franchisees say “they won’t let me” of their parent company when asked why they won’t install an E15 pump.

They cite the expense of adding a new dispenser – but Lamberty agreed it really shouldn’t be much more than a standard E10 dispenser. “The cost from moving between the E10 (to an) E15 dispenser (or) to E25 is very small,” he said.

Prime the Pump is a nonprofit effort formed last year to combine industry resources to promote E15 and higher ethanol blends by offering grants to retailers. Growth Energy CEO Tom Buis said so far, its contributors have invested $40 million in this effort.

The idea is to make ethanol competitive by choosing markets selling high enough volumes of fuel that the stations can offer higher blends at lower prices – getting FFV drivers (or in the case of E15, any passenger vehicle model year 2001 or newer) to test its performance for themselves. In the case of E85, he said 85 percent of vehicles on the road in this country can legally fuel with E15.

Buis said auto manufacturers are moving to higher-octane vehicles and will need fuel that can meet higher performance needs for less cost; he said ethanol fits the bill and that E15 is a “gateway” to getting drivers to be comfortable with buying higher blends.

Theiss said researchers at ORNL, Argonne National Laboratory and National Renewable Energy Laboratory are studying renewable fuel and automotive systems that can run on a super premium (high octane) mid-level ethanol blend. He presented details of their findings, stressing “you don’t have to have all ethanol,” or E100, to reap the benefits of the fuel’s effect on engine performance. An E25 blend with high-octane petroleum or an E40 blend in lower-octane work well.

“This fuel, we contend, needs to be introduced and used by vehicles designed to take advantage of higher octane,” he said – in other words, “for cars that don’t exist yet” but might soon given manufacturers’ path. Already, he explained, some new models are being sold with downsized engines designed for higher-octane fuel.

As to when the pool of such vehicles will increase in the marketplace, Theiss said, “I can’t put a time frame on it; it’s just not my business” to determine such things.

They are also doing a market assessment – the financial impact of such fuel on refiners – and environmental assessments. They’re even studying how traffic and speed limits affect fuel use and engine performance. “The engine can be very efficient (on ethanol), but the vehicle never sees that because it doesn’t match how we drive,” Theiss explained.

One thing not limiting the use of higher ethanol blends, he said, is feedstock; he contends there is plenty of corn and other materials that comprise ethanol to manufacture what is needed. Actual ethanol usage, on the other hand, is limited by the rate of biorefinery construction. He said by 2035, it’s estimated anywhere from 18 billion-58 billion gallons will be used for E25 and/or E40 blends.

“We see ethanol as a significant enabler for high-octane fuels,” said Theiss, adding the biofuel has “wonderful combustion properties” consumers need to know about.