Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Is ethanol more electrically conductive than gasoline?

There is a post today on www.E85vehicles.com from cgrey8 about "covering the fuel pump leads" for E85 useage. This is based upon the concept that ethanol is electrically conductive and more corrosive to metals that have an electrical charge on them than gasoline. This is something brought up in a previous post by "The Drunken Swede". This post on E85vehicles showed a photo of just such a device. However, others have also posted that reports of issue with this do not exist. Interesting concept but there is little documentation from manufactures or third party developers on this issue. Will have to wait for more information to develop on this topic.
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4 comments:

  1. UnknownDecember 16, 2009 at 6:32 AM

    This is probably true. According to what I've read, e85 isn't available at service areas on the NYS Thruway becasue Underwriters Laboratory doesn't certify ethanol pumps because of this issue.

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  2. Nordic skierDecember 16, 2009 at 9:06 PM

    The Underwriters Laboratory issue is "fraud". There was a recent discussion on this at E85vehicles.com and one can see this is not a non-profit/non-political group. Heck, a couple of E85 pumps are found on the Pennsylvania Turnpike. I have not read of or heard of automobile parts failing due to the electrically conductive nature. I just read, it may cause your fuel sending unit to send inaccurate data due to this issue but the error amount is like 10%.

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  3. 1outlawDecember 18, 2009 at 11:34 AM

    I have 36 fuel dispensers pumping E85- some of them since the spring of '05 and some with a million gallons thru them. We have had not one issue with the internals or blend valves on any of these pumps. These pumps are out of the box standard fuel dispensers- just like a lot of the older Minnesota pumps that have been out there over 12 years with no issues.

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  4. Nordic skierDecember 18, 2009 at 4:32 PM

    Thanks outlaw for your post and sharing your experience. Your Renew stations (I been to the ones in Cedar Grove and Green Bay) are neat. I wish I lived in your area. As for E85 pumps, the UL group needs competition to change.

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