21st Century Master Guide to Ethanol and E85 Fuels: Funding Opportunities, Equipment, Vehicles, Conversions, Success Stories

This up-to-date and comprehensive electronic book on CD-ROM presents an incredible collection of important documents, reports, and publications from the federal government about research and promotion of biofuels, including fuel ethanol, E85 fuel, and other renewable fuels, dry-mill production, grain and cellulosic sources, agricultural issues, Energy Department alternative fuels information, USDA Agriculture Department on corn ethanol, and more.

E85 fuel is being promoted by General Motors and Ford, as well as President Bush and the Department of Energy. Driven by environmental, economic, and energy security concerns, the availability and use of E85 is growing nationally. E85 is composed of 85 percent ethyl alcohol (ethanol) and just 15 percent petroleum. E85 is designed for use in flexible fuel vehicles, referred to as "FFVs." According to the Energy Information Administration, there are over four million light-duty flexible fuel vehicles (FFVs) in the United States. These are operated by private citizens as well as business and government fleets. FFVs may fuel with either E85 and/or gasoline interchangeably. E85 is easy to use and handle. E85 fueling equipment is slightly different and of similar cost to equipment used to store and dispense petroleum fuels. In some cases, it may be possible to convert existing petroleum equipment to handle E85. Using E85 reduces petroleum consumption. Use of E85 will reduce a fleet's overall use of petroleum and replace it with a renewable-based fuel produced ("grown") in the United States. E85 is good for the environment. Beyond operational ease, E85 offers considerable environmental benefits. Flexible Fuel Vehicles (FFVs) are available and affordable. FFVs specifically designed to run on E85 are becoming more common each model year, and FFVs are typically available as standard equipment with little or no incremental cost. FFVs may operate on gasoline, and, in fact, most of the 4 million FFVs on US roadways do today. Although that is not a positive from an E85-use standpoint, it does underscore the flexibility FFVs offer fleets. When E85 is not available, or an FFV travels outside the fueling network, a driver may simply fuel with either fuel as the situation dictates.

Contents include:

Handling, Storing, and Dispensing E85 Fuel Ethanol – Energy Policy Act of 1992; Alcohol-fueled vehicles; Flexible Fuel Vehicles; Production, Properties, and Environmental Impacts; Comparison of Fuel Properties; E85 Fuel Specifications and Standards; materials recommendations; fuel storage and dispensing; tanks; codes; filters, hoses, signage; quality assurance; shipping procedures; safety procedures; fire safety; safety codes; first aid for exposure to fuel ethanol; case study; geographical fuel-marketing regions; blending information; Material Safety Data Sheet for E85; reference sources for more information.

Bioethanol Fueling Sustainable Transportation; What is Bioethanol; Bioethanol Moving into the Marketplace; Biofuels Program; Fermentation Breakthroughs and Advanced Bioethanol Technology; Concentrated Acid Technology; Dilute Acid Technology; Enzyme Technology; Bioprocessing; Biofuels for Your State, Ethanol Solving Local Problems; State Ethanol Incentives; Biofuels and Agriculture; the U.S. Dry-mill ethanol industry; wet milling; innovations in dry-mill ethanol production; molecular sieves; thermal integration; enzymes; yeasts; automation; future Technologies, high-temperature yeast.

CRS Report for Congress on Fuel Ethanol, Background and Public Policy Issues, Fuel Ethanol. Alternative Fuel fact sheets; Feedstock Composition Glossary; Theoretical Ethanol Yield Calculator; The Energy Balance of Corn Ethanol by the U.S. Department of Agriculture; Innovative Methods for Corn Stover Collecting, Handling, Storing, and Transporting; Corn Stover for Bioethanol.