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splash blending
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Splash blending can put too much ethanol in your fuel tank
By STEVE EVERLY
The Kansas City Star
* Splash blending of biodiesel also creates problems
Randy Ledbetter, shop foreman at a General Motors dealership, knows that anything from a bad spark plug to a failing fuel injector can cause engine problems.
But he’s discovering another culprit: too much ethanol.
He’s seen that problem surge this year at Dale Willey Automotive in Lawrence. Even the service manager, complaining of a dip in mileage, found 20 percent ethanol sloshing around in his car’s fuel tank.
That’s double the legal limit but about the average in more than two dozen vehicles the shop has worked on. One customer had 35 percent ethanol.
“It’s getting worse and worse,” Ledbetter said.
Indeed, U.S. motorists have become unwitting players in a game of biofuel roulette.
And when they end up pumping too much ethanol into their tanks, they can likely blame something called splash blending.
It’s a popular method for blending ethanol into fuel. But critics say splash blending is prone to inaccuracy — and vulnerable to manipulation when ethanol becomes cheaper than conventional gasoline, as it has been this year. That makes it enticing to pack more ethanol into a gallon of gasoline and pocket some extra profits.
“There is a temptation,” said Cal Hodges, a chemical engineer and former employee of Amoco Oil who now is a petroleum consultant.
Adding extra ethanol to a wholesale delivery can save hundreds of dollars, he said.
In the past week, plummeting gasoline prices have eliminated the price break on ethanol, but forecasters expect that gap to increase again in the future.
The toll from splash blending has not been studied much, at least in this country. Few statistics exist to show how much excess ethanol is getting into fuel tanks or even how much splash blending is done.
But reports of problems are spreading. Some mechanics who test for ethanol say they increasingly are finding excess amounts. Companies selling ethanol-testing equipment report booming business.
Regulators also are getting interested.
The Iowa attorney general in August sued a fuel retailer for allegedly selling fuel with 18 percent ethanol while telling customers it had no ethanol at all. The Environmental Protection Agency says it is investigating similar problems.
Even members of the renewable-fuels industry are becoming concerned about the credibility of their products — that E10 actually means 10 percent ethanol.
“The consumer has a right to know that if E10 is what is on the pump, that is what is being sold,” said Todd Sneller, administrator of the Nebraska Ethanol Board.
And if it’s not, you could be paying for a problem.
Your fuel mileage would take a whack — 20 percent ethanol could cost you $2 per tank in decreased mileage.
Worse, much more expensive mechanical problems could develop, say some who are studying it. They suspect high ethanol causes engine hesitation and failed catalytic converters, while especially high doses may even rust out engine components such as fuel pumps.
Mixing it up
Splash blending may sound like a step in making your favorite summer drink. But it’s also a way to mix ethanol or biodiesel into fuel sold to consumers.
Here’s how it works: Instead of purchasing ethanol and gasoline already blended at a wholesale terminal, a distributor or retailer buys them separately. The ethanol is then splashed into the gasoline either in the tanker truck or sometimes in the storage tank of a retail station.
Higher profits make splash blending popular. Distributors and retailers can often buy ethanol itself more cheaply and also earn a tax credit.
Ron Lamberty, vice president of the American Coalition for Ethanol, said his group had argued for splash blending. The method makes ethanol more widely available and provides competition to oil companies who sell ethanol blends through the terminals.
“We support keeping splash blending available, because it keeps it competitive,” he said.
But, critics say, there’s a problem with splash blending: It’s a lousy way to mix fuel.
A wholesale terminal is more likely than a distributor or retailer to use computerized equipment to measure and blend biofuels accurately. Splash blending lacks that certainty.
“This has been known for a long time,” said Douglas Greenhaus, director of environment, health and safety for the National Automobile Dealers Association.
Back in 2005 Greenhaus warned Tennessee officials looking to increase ethanol use to be cautious — splash blending could push ethanol levels above 10 percent, generally the federal limit.
“It’s more than an isolated problem,” said Sullivan Curran, executive director of the Fiberglass & Pipe Institute, which represents companies that manufacture underground fuel storage tanks.
If it isn’t mixed well, splash-blended fuel sometimes stratify into layers of ethanol and gasoline in storage tanks, Curran said. That means that even if there’s only 10 percent ethanol in its tank, a retail station could pump more than that into your car.
Even the distance the tanker-truck has to travel to make a delivery can make a difference. Splash blending is often called “stoplight blending” because at least some of the mixing takes place by the fuel sloshing around when the tanker-truck comes to a stop.
F.J. Cronenwett, manager for Robson Oil Co., a distributor for area gas stations, sometimes chooses to splash blend, especially when the terminal runs out of preblended fuel.
“We haven’t found any problems when we have done it,” he said, adding that it needs to be done carefully.
Others in the ethanol industry agree splash blending is typically accurate but concede it is vulnerable to problems. For example, the correct amounts of ethanol and gasoline are left to retailers and distributors to calculate.
Overseas caution
Some countries have backed away from splash blending.
In the United Kingdom, for example, officials don’t know of it being done at all.
“I don’t think anyone here has thought anyone would be stupid enough to do it,” said Peter Barlow, technical consultant for the Petrol Retailers Association in London.
And splash blending played a role in a disastrous debut of ethanol in Australia.
Terry Conroy, a manager for the Victoria Automobile Chamber of Commerce in Australia, said some fuel transporters and retailers realized there were quick profits to be made because ethanol was cheaper than gasoline.
“They figured that if 10 percent was good, then 40 percent is better,” he said.
Some cars literally stopped in their tracks because of excess ethanol, which caused fuel pumps and other engine components to fail. Conroy’s group called for a ban on splash blending, which was not warmly received by ethanol suppliers.
“They wanted my guts for garters,” he said.
For a while, BP and other oil companies and major retailers even stopped selling ethanol blends because of the controversy. Nissan still recommends its drivers not use splash-blended fuel.
“I think anyone would have to be mad to do splash blending today,” said Gary Fites, a spokesman for the Royal Automobile Club of Queensland in Australia.
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there's more. www.kansascity.com |
10-26-2008
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