In 2008 we took a vehicle and converted it to ethanol fuel. We volunteered our time, expertise and assumed all expenses to provide an independent evaluation of the value of using such a fuel.
In our testing we found that it required a 28% increase in fuel usage and produced 12% more horsepower. At this point we can deduce that unless the price of producing ethanol comes down tremendously, this is NOT a viable fuel option. Some of the other things we observed were the ethanol (E85) increased corrosion and wear to the fuel system. It has less BTU’s than gasoline thus causing a lower MPG. The higher octane rating of ethanol (E85) allows a power plant designed and tuned to optimize the uses of E85 to produce more power.