U of M Testing drivability of E20

Ethanol fuel use continues to grow in importance in Minnesota.

And the way Bill Roberts talks about it, it's a source of pride.

"Minnesota has probably more than half the E85 stations in the country. We have a huge amount of ethanol plants. We certainly pump more ethanol. We were one of the first states to go E10, and now with E20, if we end up doing that, we'll be the first in the country to go to E20," he says.

Bill Roberts is associate director of Parking and Transportations Services at the University of Minnesota.

He keeps track of the 525 or so trucks, vans, cars, and SUVs the university uses on the Twin Cities University campuses.

He knows how many of them use E85, a blend of 85 percent ethanol and 15 percent gasoline.

He knows how many of them are hybrid vehicles.

He decided which 40 will run with E20, a blend of 20 percent ethanol and 80 percent gasoline.

"They asked me to find 40 pairs of vehicles," he said, "so we've got two Chevrolet 3/4 ton trucks with six liter engines. We've got two Ford Escorts with the two liter engine. We've got two Chevy Malibus with the 3.5 liter engines, so we've got two of everything, and one will run on regular fuel and the other will run on E20."

The Minnesota Legislature has decided that by 2013, all gasoline sold in Minnesota will be E20.

The state contracted with the University of Minnesota to determine how cars will act on E20.

"Twenty percent blend is not a very high blend and most of the vehicles are relatively modern, and most modern spark ignition vehicles have a feedback control on the fuel injection system that should be able to compensate for moderate changes in fuel," said Professor David Kittelson.

He's a professor of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Minnesota, charged with doing the drivability research on E20 fuel.

"When we get into deep winter, then there probably will be some problems because with a higher ethanol blend, you may have a little bit more difficulty when the engine is very cold right on starting, and initial driving off," he said.

"That's the expectation. But we have an open mind," he laughed.

The research began July 1. After almost five months, Bill Roberts finds himself pleasantly surprised.

"So far, we've been, we've had absolutely no problems," he observed.

"Our drivers fill out a sheet every day where they say whether they had any problems, whether it was poor starting or whether it hesitated, you know, backfired or anything like that, and we've had no problems yet," he said.

"We found in our own shop... to go into something new, your own mechanics are most likely to not like it and look for problems, so I've been very surprised that we've had no drivability issues, so... I mean, we really have, I believe had no drivability issues," he repeated.

Both Roberts and Professor Kittelson hastened to mention that it's only the drivability study that's being done at the University of Minnesota.

"Minnesota State University at Mankato has another grant to test to make sure it works on all the fuel components," said Roberts, "you 'know, the carburetors, fuel lines, gas tanks."

And both men are keeping an open mind about how cars will act on E20 fuel when it gets really cold.

By Ken Speake, KARE 11 News

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