If you have a vehicle made in 2001 or newer, maybe; but not for your boat. The Department of Energy found that E15 run in marine engines caused severe damage and failure. With our growing demand for renewable fuels and E10 already widely accepted, there is little to no chance we’ll be removing blended fuels from our pumps. In fact, we’ll probably continue to be pushed to higher blends. But is ethanol really the best choice for our fuel. BoatU.S. (Boat Owners Association of The United States) suggest that E15, or any ethanol blend, may be inferior to butanol. Butanol has quite a few advantages over ethanol, it is less corrosive, it is much less miscible with water, and it has a higher power density (110,000 Btu per gallon versus ethanol’s 84,000 Btu).
So why don’t we use butanol yet; probably because, until recently, it has just been so much cheaper to produce ethanol. There is just more infrastructure in place to produce and distribute ethanol, ethanol has momentum. So far, the advantages of butanol seem to be just what boating needs in a blended fuel, hopefully future testing will confirm the fuel for marine use. If not, maybe the boating industry can get the government to agree to a “cash-for-clunkers” for boats.
*Update: The House of Representatives passed a bill on Tuesday that will block the EPA from approving the sale of E15 until further studies can be preformed. The Detroit News reports that the bill, sponsored by Rep. James Sensenbrenner, R-Wisconsin, was passed with a19-7 vote across party lines. Check out the full report here.
Sources: BoatU.S. and BoatingIndustry
The farmers are better at marketing and got a jump on the paint companies who failed to see the potential? Just a theory ;0)
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