FAQsWhat is E85? E85 is an alcohol fuel mixture that typically contains a mixture of up to 85% fuel ethanol and 15% petrol. Where is E85 available? E85 is available across many Maxol forecourts. To see the full list of forecourts selling E85, please click here. What is the source for Irish Bioethanol?
How does using E85 help the environment? The main benefit to the environment is the reduction of CO2 emissions. As bioethanol is a renewable fuel from plants, the CO2 emitted by the vehicles was extracted from the atmosphere during plant growth through photosynthesis By closing the CO2 circle, the use of bioethanol can lead up to a 70% reduction of CO2 emissions, as compared to petrol. What vehicles can be converted to run on E85? The Flexfuel kit will convert most cars which are manufactured to run on unleaded and which were manufactured after 1990. If your car was manufactured prior to 1990, it may contain rubber components in the fuel system, which will need to be replaced with modern parts prior to installing the conversion kit.
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What is the Octane Rating of E85? Maxol’s E85 fuel is 104 Octane. What is the price of E85? This will fluctuate with market prices and production costs of ethanol. However, it is envisaged that E85 will remain significantly cheaper than unleaded 95. The raw cost of bio-ethanol is more expensive than the cost of petrol, with significantly lower economies of scale in production and demand. This is offset by the Governments duty derogation of 44.27 cent per litre on bio-ethanol bases fuels. This difference will improve as the base cost of bio-ethanol reduces with increased production and demand along with greater savings should oil prices continue to rise. Will fuel efficiency be affected? There are a lot of variables here. Ethanol has less chemical energy per litre than petrol, but burns more efficiently. Various reports show that fuel efficiency will decrease by between 5% and 20% depending on a variety of factors. When running a vehicle on E85, the performance of the vehicle will generally increase. If you use this extra performance, it will obviously have a negative effect in the vehicles fuel efficiency. Apart from driving habits, the other most common factor seems to be that the higher the vehicles compression ratio, the lower the increase in litres per 100km (decrease in miles per gallon). You can calculate the approximate costs/benefits by clicking here. Simply change the price of unleaded and ethanol to match the prices in your area and various comparisons can then be made by changing the fuel efficiency level. |
Among the suppliers of bioethanol for E85 is the Carbery Group in Ballineen, Co.Cork, with the source product being milk. Milk as a complete food contains protein, fat, lactose as well as minerals and vitamins. During cheese and other food ingredient production, all the proteins, fat and other components are removed, except for the lactose. The lactose is present in a water solution, which when fermented with yeast, produces a 3.5% alcohol solution. Through various processes, this is increased to the desired 99.9% strength. The cows which produce the milk are fed 90% grass and 10% cereals; therefore this ethanol is derived from a renewable source.