New Flex Fuel Conversion Services Saves Money at Pump, Environment
Filed Under: Business, Featured, Local News
Geist local Adam Goldstein has a solution for rising gasoline prices. Owner of the Automotive Service Group off of Thunderbird Road near Pendleton Pike, Goldstein now offers a flex fuel conversion package that includes, among other things, a computer card that allows your vehicle to burn E85 ethanol.
“All cars built after 1994 had to be equipped to burn at least 10% Ethanol,” said Goldstein. “With gas prices over $4.00 a gallon and ethanol around $3.25, people can save around 20% at the pump right off the bat.”
Their new service available through IndyFlexFuel.com gives people the flexibility of burning regular unleaded gasoline, E85, or a mixture of both. Ethanol is not as widely available as gasoline, and with the price disparity, more and more people are lining up for the corn-based fuel.
“The closest places to buy E85 are at the Meijer on East 96th Street and the Gas America off of Franklin Road and 21st Street,” Goldstein said.
According to the IndyFlexFuel.com website, there are a total of 7 stations in Indianapolis that carry E85. But Goldstein points out that if you are traveling or running low on fuel and getting to an E85 station is out of the question, you can still fill up with gasoline.
In addition to the cost savings, converting your vehicle to run on E85 has other advantages. Besides burning “cleaner” emissions, ethanol burns at a higher octane rating (105 octane vs. 87-93 octane in gasoline) which gives most cars up to 10% more horse power. Greenhouse gas emissions are reduced by 19% and tailpipe carbon monoxide emissions are reduced by about 30%.
Goldstein also points out a few drawbacks to burning E85, the biggest being a decrease in miles per gallon.
“On average, you’ll see a 5% decrease in your fuel efficiency, but when you factor in the 20% cost savings and the other advantages, you are still way ahead.”
The cost to convert your late model vehicle depends on the number of cylinders primarily. To achieve optimum performance with the new E85 conversion, ASG will also check the O2 sensors, filters, tire pressure, and spark plugs. According to Goldstein, the complete package starts at $799.
For more information or to see if your car is E85 compatible, visit IndyFlexFuel.com.
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Edward | Jun 30, 2008 | Reply
There are aeveral sites that provide calculators to assist in determining if E85 really provides a more economic alternative to regular Octane Gasoline…look at http://www.intercepteft.com/calc.html. In most of the examples that I have run, there is little to no advantage to using E85 - other than emitting less CO2 into the atmosphere. The real answer here is utilizing a car that takes advantage of hybrid technology and E85, providing a lower per mile cost, AND having a positive impact on our air!
If you opt for E85, there is also a station across from Allisonville Nursery on Allisonville Road which sells E85.
resident | Jul 7, 2008 | Reply
E85-decreases your engines efficiency by 15% and is bad for the environment.. not good for it. It takes a gallon of oil to make a gallon of ethanol and increases the cost of food production. Bad idea all the way around
TomBritt | Jul 7, 2008 | Reply
how is burning cleaner fuel bad? http://www.e85.us/EnginePerformance.shtml
I’ll give you that it takes more energy to create ethanol, but the advantages far outweigh the disadvantages. Your fuel economy will go down on ethanol, but not by 15%…more like 7-10% depending on the car.
resident | Jul 8, 2008 | Reply
From http://www.fueleconomy.gov
FFVs operating on E85 usually experience a 20-30% drop in miles per gallon due to ethanol’s lower energy content.
resident | Jul 8, 2008 | Reply
Not cleaner burning:
There are several problems with the use of ethanol as an alternative fuel. First, it is costly to produce and use. At 1987 prices, it cost 2.5-3.75 times as much as gasoline. The United States Department of the Environment (DOE) is funding a research program aimed at decreasing the cost to $0.60/gallon by the year 2000; in the last decade or so, the cost has dropped from $3.60/gallon to $1.27/gallon. There are also costs associated with modifying vehicles to use methanol or gasohol, but these costs vary, depending on the number of vehicles produced.
Another problem is that ethanol has a smaller energy density than gasoline. It takes about 1.5 times more ethanol than gasoline to travel the same distance. However, with new technologies and dedicated ethanol-engines, this is expected to drop to 1.25 times.
An important consideration with ethanol is that it requires vast amounts of land to grow the crops needed to generate fuel. The process for conversion of crops to ethanol is relatively inefficient because of the large water content of the plant material. There is legitimate concern, especially in developing countries, that using land for ethanol production will compete directly with food production.
Another problem is that ethanol burning may increase emission of certain types of pollutants. Like any combustion process, some of the ethanol fuel would come out the tailpipe unburned. This is not a major problem since ethanol emissions are relatively non-toxic. However, some of the ethanol will be only partially oxidized and emitted as acetylaldehyde, which reacts in air to eventually contribute to the formation of ozone. Current research is investigating means to reduce acetylaldehyde emissions by decreasing the engine warm-up period.
Finally, ethanol production, like all processes, generates waste products that must be disposed. The waste product from ethanol production, called swill, can be used as a soil conditioner on land, but is extremely toxic to aquatic life.