Underwriters Laboratories Says Most Gas Pumps in U.S. Aren't Certified Beyond E10
By Scott Doggett February 9, 2009The announcement comes as USDA and EPA discuss possible increase in ethanol blend.
By Scott Doggett, Contributor
Underwriters Laboratories, which verifies safety compliance of all manner of equipment, says that service-station pumps it's certified to dispense E10 - an automotive fuel containing 10 percent ethanol - are not certified for higher blends.
The company made the announcement amid ongoing talks between the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to raise the amount of ethanol blended into the U.S. gasoline supply.
The significance? If the USDA and EPA come to an agreement to raise the blend from 10 percent to, say, 15 percent, there won't be many pumps that can handle it. Not immediately, anyway.
No doubt the agencies are trying to address the fact that U.S. ethanol producers are going out of business right and left these days, with 21 percent of the U.S. capacity for ethanol production standing idle.
That percentage was provided by ethanol-maker Archer Daniels Midland Co., which has vested interests, but it sounds about right.
As we're reported on more than one occasion, the nation's second-largest U.S. ethanol maker - VeraSun Energy Corp. - filed for bankruptcy protection in October as an industrywide expansion of production facilities greatly outpaced demand for ethanol.
The American Coalition for Ethanol, the nation's largest ethanol advocacy organization, is going ballistic, accusing Underwriters Laboratories of "arbitrarily" changing its position regarding the safety of E10 dispensers.
ACE Vice President of Marketing Ron Lamberty said that "for years the fuel-marketing community has understood the standard 'UL 87' to cover the use of up to 15 percent ethanol in standard gasoline pumps. But in a January 7 statement, UL now says that those pumps are only certified to handle up to 10 percent ethanol."
He said the so-called change has "caused many within the ethanol industry to question whether UL - an organization built on a reputation of precision and impartiality - has at very least treated ethanol issues with carelessness and at times appears to have an anti-ethanol bias."
In response to those accusations, Underwriters Laboratories today released a statement explaining it position.
In the statement, the company said that because it often uses safety margins during testing, some "subassemblies have been tested with fuels containing 15 percent ethanol, leading to some technical references to this level, but that does not mean that those dispensers are certified to dispense fuels containing greater than 10 percent ethanol."
The company said it is currently working with the Department of Energy and the EPA regarding their ongoing research to investigate the impact of using higher ethanol blends in current vehicles and engine systems that were not designed for use with ethanol blend levels above E10.
Underwriters Laboratories said that if new federal guidelines are established that approve higher ethanol blend levels for public use, the company would gladly review products currently certified under UL 87 to determine whether they would be suitable for a stronger ethanol blend.
In its defense, Underwriters Laboratories said it announced the establishment of new safety requirements for higher ethanol fuel blend dispensing equipment on October 2007.
"These requirements, titled Subject 87A, have been available to manufacturers looking to get
their equipment tested and certified for ethanol fuel blends greater than 10 percent and up to
85 percent," it said. "This means that dispensing equipment evaluated to the requirements in Subject 87A would be considered to be acceptable for dispensing blends with any ethanol content up to 85 percent."
Unfortunately for the industry, there are only 1,265 E85 retail locations nationwide, meaning that if the government approves a blend higher than E10, motorists who want to put it in their tanks won't have an easy time finding pumps dispensing it.
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U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Grants First-of-its-Kind Testing Exemption to Renergie
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Renergie to Test Hydrous E10, E20, E30 & E85 Ethanol Blends in Non-Flex-Fuel Vehicles and Flex-Fuel Vehicles in Louisiana
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has granted a testing exemption to Renergie, Inc. Under the test program, the first of its kind in the U.S., Renergie will use variable blending pumps, not splash blending, to precisely dispense hydrous ethanol blends of E10, E20, E30, and E85 to test vehicles for the purpose of testing for blend optimization with respect to fuel economy, engine emissions, and vehicle drivability. Sixty vehicles will be involved in the test program which will last for a period of 15 months.
Hydrous Ethanol
Preliminary tests conducted in Europe have proven that the use of hydrous ethanol, which eliminates the need for the hydrous-to-anhydrous dehydration processing step, results in an energy savings of between ten percent and forty-five percent during processing, a four percent product volume increase, higher mileage per gallon, a cleaner engine interior, and a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions.
Variable Blending Pump
In the U.S., the primary method for blending ethanol into gasoline is splash blending. The ethanol is ?splashed? into the gasoline either in a tanker truck or sometimes into a storage tank of a retail station. Renergie believes the inaccuracy and manipulation of splash blending may be eliminated by precisely blending the ethanol and unleaded gasoline at the point of consumption, i.e., the point where the consumer puts E10, E20, E30 or E85 into his or her vehicle. A variable blending pump would ensure the consumer that E10 means the fuel entering the fuel tank of the consumer?s vehicle is 10 percent ethanol (rather than the current arbitrary range of 4 percent ethanol to at least 24% ethanol that the splash blending method provides) and 90% gasoline.
Team Approach
?On June 21, 2008, Governor Bobby Jindal signed into law the Advanced Biofuel Industry Development Initiative (?Act 382?), the most comprehensive and far-reaching state legislation in the nation enacted to develop a statewide advanced biofuel industry. Act 382 is based upon the ?Field-to-Pump? strategy developed by Renergie. Louisiana is the first state to enact alternative transportation fuel legislation that includes a variable blending pump pilot program and a hydrous ethanol pilot program,? said Meaghan M. Donovan, founder of Renergie, Inc. ?We are excited and proud that Renergie, the Louisiana Department of Agriculture & Forestry, the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency are acting as a unified team to develop a network of small advanced biofuel manufacturing facilities and the necessary fueling infrastructure throughout Louisiana. Representative Jonathan W. Perry (R - District 47), Senator Nick Gautreaux (D - District 26), and Dr. Mike Strain, Commissioner of the Louisiana Department of Agriculture and Forestry, should be praised for their leadership on this issue. Renergie?s decentralized network of small advanced biofuel manufacturing facilities reduces Renergie?s feedstock supply risk, maximizes rural economic development, maximizes job creation in the state and does not burden local water supplies. The legislature and governor of the great State of Louisiana have chosen to lead the nation in moving ethanol beyond being just a blending component in gasoline. By blending fuel-grade ethanol with gasoline, via blending pumps at its gas stations, Renergie will offer the consumer a fuel that is renewable, competitively-priced, cleaner, and more efficient than unleaded gasoline in the form E10, E20, E30 and E85.?
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