50 cents reduction, or a dollar reduction is significant on $2.35 to $3.5/gallon prices.
If gasoline is 235 cents/gallon and E85 is 185 or 135 cents, what percentage is it? They are 79% and 57% of the gasoline price respectively.

If you accept the false claim of 2/3rds reduction in fuel economy (real world tends to get around 75-85%), you see that the difference is marginal in the former case, and a clear improvement in the latter. With real world figures, even in today’s poorly done “flexers”, the cost is at worst comparable, and at best a clear advantage. Real world, BTW, reflects the fact that we get around 10-15% more of the available energy out of ethanol than we do for gasoline, leaving the net energy difference in the upper 70% range. Non-flex ethanol engines can do better.

But the best benefit is in using smaller engines that produce more power. IF, for example, you can use a 2 liter instead of a 3L engine, or a 4.3L instead of a 5.7L you are very likely to reduce net costs but the consumer won’t realize it directly because the current system of mandated EPA figures can’t show it (it’s not like they test properly anyway).

Thanks for sharing your tour and information gathered on Coskata. I wrote about them in my blog for the Innovators-Network yesterday and am glad to see them getting additional coverage. Their forward-looking model for recycling waste (and not food!) into ethanol is the way to go.

Best Wishes,

Anthony Kuhn