High Performance
Engineering Progress
Ethanol contains 37% oxygen by weight—giving it a high octane rating of 115. Releasing this energy most efficiently can easily be done by making some simple modifications to today's internal combustion engine. When engines are specifically engineered for burning ethanol by adjusting the timing and compression, the resulting performance is superior to that of gasoline.
Racing Forward With Efficiency
In 2007, the Indy Racing League (IRL) made 100% pure ethanol the official fuel for the IndyCar Series. Indy cars typically run at speeds in excess of 230 mph while generating over 675hp. In 2011, NASCAR announced it was going green with E-15 in every car. If ethanol has proven efficient enough for the IRL and NASCAR, it only makes sense that it should be efficient enough (and available) for your vehicle of choice.
Optimizing Performance
It's important to remember that ethanol is not gasoline…its different and therefore possesses unique characteristics during combustion. In today's internal combustion engine set up for burning gasoline, ethanol's true performance potential cannot be realized.
Work is underway to introduce an Ethanol Optimized Engine in order to take advantage of ethanol's high octane and latent heat of vaporization to provide a low production cost solution and comparable fuel economy to gasoline-powered engines. Preliminary tests show a fuel economy improvement of up to 30% is possible with no loss of power or performance using a downsized Ethanol Optimized Engine in place of currently available gasoline powertrain technology.
