How much less value am I getting from a gallon of ethanol blend (E85) compared to pure gasoline?

By | Jun 17, 2009
bizsmithy asked:


I know that pure gets less than pure . I’m trying to figure out which to buy at the pump for the price. How much should I discount when comparing? Thanks!

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2 Comments so far
  1. themrmike June 18, 2009 9:05 pm

    Gasoline:
    1 Gal Gasoline (mid grade) = 125,000 Btu’s

    Ethanol:
    1 Gal Ethanol = 76,000 Btu’s

    looks to me like ethanol is about 60% the energy of equivalent volume of gasoline and there fore should cost approximately 40% less.

    however e85 is a blend of 85% alcohol and 15% gasoline

    based on the above values that works out to 82500 Btu’s /gal

    which turns out to be 66% the energy in an equivalent volume of gasoline

    therefore should sell for approximately 30- 35 %less that gasoline.

    and I’ll bet you are paying 90-95% the cost of gasoline.

    just think of it as an additional tax for going green. tmm

  2. JOHNNIE B June 19, 2009 1:02 pm

    I found about 10%.

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