Answer: Yes Explanation: We need to explain this in two parts. First, in the 1990s the U.S. government issued a series of amendments to the Clean Air Act to ban MTBE (Methyl Tertiary Butyl Ether) which was a fuel oxygenate that was found to pollute the ground water and made it very toxic. Gasoline now must have at least a 2% oxygen content. Ethanol is used as an oxygenate and mixed with gasoline, which allows the fuel to burn more completely and therefore produces cleaner emissions. Ethanol breaks down very rapidly when exposed to the environment and has not been found to contaminate freshwater sources. Second, ethanol as a fuel burns cleaner than gasoline. It has a particulate free emmisions and when mixed with oxygen produces carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, aldehydes and water. Gasoline on the other hand does emit particulate matter carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, and unburned hydrocarbons. You can see the visible difference here. If we compare the CO2 emissions from ethanol to other fuels we will find that ethanol is quite a bit lower per gallon of fuel burned. This doesn't tell us the whole story though, we know that ethanol has a lower density per gallon than gasoline so we need to do an apples to apples comparison. If you compare the co2 emissions per million btu's you find that ethanol does in fact have a lower emissions than other fuels.

Answer: Yes, but we wouldn't recommend it. Explanation: Gasoline with ethanol blends up to 10% (E10) are approved for use in all small engines. That's fine, there is nothing wrong with using an ethanol blend in your 2 stroke engine...usually. The devil is in the details with this one. Ethanol is not miscible or mixable with 2 stroke oil, this doesn't usually matter because gasoline is miscible with 2 stroke oil and with ethanol so it acts as a carrier and keeps everything mixed together as one happy family. Now bring along the wrecking ball...Water. Ethanol is hydrophilic which means it really likes water...a lot when it gets enough water it goes through a phase separation which means that it no longer wants to be with the gasoline because it likes the water more. The problem is that the water/ethanol mixture no longer has any oil in it, so when pulled through the engine it offers no lubrication for the internal engine components. This is even worse when we consider that ethanol is also a powerful cleaning agent which will take the residual oil off of the bearings causing very fast wear to engine components. To sum this up ethanol blends up to 10% will not cause damage unless the ethanol absorbs enough moisture to separate from the gas. If you use your engine frequently this will probably never happen. If on the other hand you are like us and you leave fuel in your small engines for extended periods of time you do run the risk of causing serious engine damage in a fairly short amount of time. That is a chance I'm not sure if im willing to take.

Answer: Yes Explanation: You can use ethanol in a 4 stroke small engine. Small engines from all manufacturers have been approved to use up to an E10 ethanol blend. A lot of the earlier issues with small engines resulted from incompatible hoses and carburetors. One potential issue that you can have is that ethanol separates from fuel when it absorbs to much water and that can cause corrosion issues inside the carburetor. This will never be a problem if you are frequently running the engine and using fresh fuel but if you don't use the engine for a while (lets say over the winter) this can cause issues inside the carburetor. It is important to note that similar issues can develop if you are using straight gas (E0) because although gasoline does not absorb moisture it can still form inside the tank through condensation. It also begins to break down and leave varnish deposits inside the carburetor. The biggest difference between E0 and E10 is that E0 degrades at a slower rate lessening the chance of issues. Regardless of which fuel you use it is recommended to use a fuel stabilizer and leave your tank full over the winter to minimize condensation issues.

Answer: Yes Explanation: This one is pretty tricky. Nobody disagrees with the fact that ethanol does degrade rubber hoses but when you ask the question of "what kind of hose do I need to use" the answers become much more confusing. If you are using fuel with an ethanol content of E30 or lower, you can use standard fuel hose that has a rating of SAE30r6 - or 30R7 for low pressure applications up to 50 psi. If you need higher pressure hose for fuel injection systems, you will need hose rated for SAE30r9. If you go to an auto parts store and ask for high or low pressure fuel hose you will more than likely get a hose that meets one of these specifications. It should be pretty easy to tell as the specification should be printed on the hose. If you are using fuel with an ethanol content of E30 or higher you will need to use fuel hose that has a rating of SAE30R14. this hose has a barrier on the inside that is usually made of PTFE that is impermeable to ethanol. This hose is also carb compliant due to its low permeability rate. Fun fact, did you know that your rubber fuel hose actually contributes to your vehicles emissions? We didnt either. as it turns out a two foot length of standard rubber fuel hose can leak as much as 1 gallon of fuel per year! Barrier hose meeting the SAE30R14 standard has a maximum allowable rate of just under 2 tablespoons per year

Answer: No Explanation: Gaskets that are used in todays engines are usually a metal composite or silicon rubber that is not affected by ethanol. Orings do have the potential to be damaged by Ethanol but generally the orings that would be in contact with gasoline are already made out of a material that is resistant to ethanol such as Viton, teflon (PTFE), or silicone.

Answer: No not without some gasoline mixed with it. Explanation: As temperatures begin to drop below 50 degrees farenheight, vehicles can begin to have issues with cold starting. In any liquid there is a constant movement of molecules. As temperature increases, the molecules speed up, some acquiring enough energy to escape from the liquid surface as a vapor. this is what we want in an internal combustion engine. Now The Flash point is the lowest temperature where a flammable liquid will give of enough vapors to form an ignitable mixture. Ethanol has a flash point of approximately 56 degrees where as gasoline is minus 45 degrees. The low carbon content of ethanol makes it a considerably less volatile fuel than gasoline. This means that we need to have some fuel mixed with ethanol to run properly at lower temperatures. Fortunately for us Even the highest grade of ethanol available in the united states (E85) has enough fuel mixed with it to allow the fuel to operate normally under almost all conditions.

Answer: Not for very long Explanation: Ethanol is safe for humans we use in many different products. It is true that ethanol will pollute groundwater. If you have enough ethanol in a small enough body of water the oxygen will be depleted and there could be loss of fish. however, if the spill is in an open body such as a river the ethanol will degrade very rapidly, usually within a few days. for a full explanation visit our environmental

Answer: Yes, depending on the amount of ethanol. Explanation: In the case of aluminum tanks, aluminum is a highly conductive metal that relies on an oxide layer for its corrosion protection properties. Low levels of ethanol, such as E10, are usually not a problem in aluminum tanks because the oxide layer provides a good measure of protection. The problem occurs when the ethanol content is increased.There are two mechanisms that occur with ethanol. Both mechanisms are a result of the hydroscopic property of ethanol, meaning it absorbs water. The more ethanol in the fuel, the more water there will be in the fuel tank. Water not only causes the tank to corrode, it also causes the corrosion particles to clog fuel filters, fuel systems, and it could potentially damage engine components.

Answer: No not yet at least. Explanation: Do NOT mix ethanol with the diesel in your engine. diesel fuel is actually used as the lubricant for the fuel pump and injectors in a diesel engine. ethanol is not a good lubricant and will definitely cause very rapid and expensive wear to current engine designs. Also ethanol is so much less dense than diesel that the injector would need to be larger to handle more fuel per injection cycle. Now that we've talked about why it's not good let's talk about why it could be good in the future. Research is currently being done into the effects of mixing the two fuels. mixing 10-15% ethanol with diesel creates a mixture called E-diesel that has shown some promise in reducing particulate matter emissions in diesel engines (this is the black stuff that comes out of a Diesel exhaust). This is still in the research phase and changes would have to be made to current production engines to accommodate this.

Answer: The "smoke" that comes out of the stack is water vapor. No water vapor is not harmful. Explanation: The smoke that you see billowing out of an ethanol plant is primarily water vapor. this is from the last step of ethanol production process where they are removing the water from the ethanol and also lowering the moisture content of the DDG'S (dried distiller's grains). the water vapor is not harmful to us however it does have a slight smell to it. the smell is aromatic compounds left over from the fermentation process. There is also come co2 emissions from the burning of natural gas which is the fuel source used to dehydrate the ethanol and the DDG'S this actually comes from a different exhaust stack and is clear. Fun fact: The unique smell from ethanol plants and breweries is caused by a product called aceta aldehyde. this is the same compound that causes hangovers. Don't worry though there is no danger of a hangover being caused by hanging around an ethanol plant for too long, now a brewery however...

Answer: we don't think so. Explanation: Common sense tells us that using corn for ethanol would take away some of the corn we would normally use for food. This is what we found when we looked at most websites. after doing quite a bit of research we found that ethanol in america is primarily made out of yellow dent number 2 field corn. We do not generaly eat this corn directly, some of it is processed into corn meal and used as an ingredient in processed foods. most of it however is used to feed livestock such as cattle, chickens and, pigs. We then in turn eat the meat from those animals. Another thing we found out was that one of the byproducts from the production of ethanol is dried distiller's grains or DDG's, this is used as a feed supplement for livestock. we realized that we are able to increase the usefulness of corn to make A fuel and feed livestock at the same time. This has had the impact of reducing the effect ethanol has had on our food prices. One other note is that Farmers have consistently been raising the average yields for their farms this has helped to meet the increased demand overall. According to the Minnesota Biofuels Association ethanol production has Continued to increase while corn prices have continued to fall. They think that the price of food is more related to the price of oil than the price of ethanol.

Answer: No.... Explanation: Ethanol itself is does not have any contaminates in it that would plug your fuel system. The issue however is that it is actually a pretty good solvent and it will clean dirt and deposits that have settled in your fuel tank over time. now before you get worried you need to remember that your fuel system has a filter to protect against just this sort of thing. Also this will happen fairly fast, usually within one or 2 tanks of fuel. The fuel filter is more than capable of handling any normal amount of dirt inside of the tank. If there is enough dirt present to plug the filter the real concern should be finding out how it got in there in the first place.