E15? E20? New Ethanol Blends in test

[Bruce Nunnally]

Autonews.com is reporting that the US Government has been running closed testing on new 15% and 20% ethanol / gasoline blends. All current vehicles can tolerate up to 10% ethanol blend in current gasoline. Flex fuel vehicles can operate on up to E85, which is 85% ethanol. The new testing is to see if most vehicles can operate on slightly higher ethanol content than the current mix at the unleaded pump.

So far, the tests show that the vehicles operate in an 'adequate' manner.

The Department of Energy reported last week that a small test fleet of vehicles ran adequately on gasoline blends of as much as 20 percent ethanol. "The data is encouraging," said Energy Secretary Sam Bodman.