What is Ethanol?

Ethanol is a clean-burning, high-octane motor fuel that is produced from renewable sources. At its most basic, ethanol is grain alcohol, produced from crops such as corn. Because it is domestically produced, ethanol helps reduce America's dependence upon foreign sources of energy.

Unblended 100% ethanol is not used as a motor fuel; instead, a percentage of ethanol is combined with unleaded gasoline. The most common blends are:

E10 - 10% ethanol and 90% unleaded gasoline
E10 is approved for use in any make or model of vehicle sold in the U.S. Many automakers recommend its use because of its high performance, clean-burning characteristics. Today about 70% of America's gasoline contained some ethanol, most as this E10 blend.

E85 - 85% ethanol and 15% unleaded gasoline
E85 is an alternative fuel for use in flexible fuel vehicles (FFVs). There are currently more than 6 million FFVs on America's roads today, and automakers are rolling out more each year. In conjunction with more flexible fuel vehicles, more E85 pumps are being installed across the country. When E85 is not avaialble, these FFVs can operate on straight gasoline or any ethanol blend up to 85%.

It is important to note that it does not take a special vehicle to run on "ethanol". All vehicles are "ethanol vehicles" and can use up to 10% ethanol with no modifications to the engine. Often people confuse E85 for "ethanol", believing incorrectly that not all vehicles are ethanol-compatible.

Mid-range blends of ethanol: between E10 and E85
ACE is leading efforts to attend to any technical or regulatory hurdles to using ethanol blends above 10%, such as E20, E30, or E40. If these higher percentages of ethanol could be used in standard automobiles, the U.S. could use a dramatically higher amount of renewable fuel, thus significantly decreasing our dependence on petroleum.