LOUISVILLE, Ky.
During a GIE+EXPO press conference covering the show and industry issues in general, OPEI VP of Public Affairs Kris Kiser stated that ethanol and a fuel marketplace that’s seeing new blends are issues ripe for “confusion, mistakes and fraud.”
According to Kiser, “this industry is going to be genuinely affected by the transition to renewable fuel blends.” He noted that early results from U.S. Dept. of Energy testing on small engines with higher blends such as E15 and E20 has shown “across the board failures, and it’s important for us to work with Congress to get the message out about the implications for the marketplace.”
There’ve been flat-out cases of fraud, where a retailer in Iowa was recently charged with selling E85 fuel as E10, Kiser said. With the new fuel blends, there’s also plenty of opportunity for confusion and mistakes on the part of consumers. A good example is the “blender” pumps that are starting to show up in the market, where consumers can select or “dial in” their chosen level of ethanol in gasoline.
“The problem is, the higher ethanol blends are cheaper, so there’s an incentive to buy at a lower price,” Kiser said, even though only specially-labeled or modified vehicles can operate reliably on anything higher than E10.
The same goes for small engines, and the fuel-related failure rate increases directly as blended levels above E10 are used in small engines.
To both adapt and give the industry some breathing room, OPEI has gained two important governmental regulations on the emissions and fuel fronts, according to OPEI’s James McNew.
First, small engine manufacturers can now use E10 fuels when testing a product for emissions certification, an important change that more accurately reflects the marketplace and true operating conditions that small engines are working in.
Second—and perhaps more importantly—partially through OPEI’s efforts there’s been an amendment to the federal Clean Air Act now requiring fuel sellers of any type (manufacturer, distributor, retailer) that want to introduce any blend over E10 into the marketplace to first receive a waiver from the EPA.
The extensive, multi-year data gathering and documentation process to gain such a waiver will keep the small engine industry from being overwhelmed, but many agree it only delays the inevitable of higher ethanol blends widely available in the marketplace.
Tech Review
A well-attended, standing room only “technical session” at the recent GIE+EXPO featured Eddie Anderson, Stihl technical training coordinator, who discussed some of his findings regarding the use of ethanol in small engines.
According to Anderson, ethanol-blended gasoline can cause engine problems indirectly, such as varnish and carburetor gum-up. Ethanol may also cause lean conditions to occur “if E10 hits the system where it wasn’t before, and the unit was tuned to high performance with regular (non-blended) gas,” he added.
“The kinds of things we used to do with fuel and fuel storage, we just can’t do anymore,” he said. “The fuel has changed, and we have to recognize that and act accordingly.”
The now-common E10 gasoline being sold nationwide works, for the most part, with no problem in small engines, Anderson says, yet switching an engine from non-blended gasoline to E10 may cause problems initially.
Anderson told dealers in attendance that he recommends cleaning fuel tanks and fuel lines before introducing E10 into an engine. He also noted that Stihl recommends using name-brand, premium 89 octane—mainly for the filtering and additives—and also the use of fuel stabilizers, especially for homeowners who likely store fuel for much longer than pro equipment users.
The session included a quick primer on testing for alcohol percentage in fuel by both test tube and a “paste test” that gauges water and ethanol percentage.
Anderson also told dealers it’s a good idea to have customers bring in their fuel containers for testing, noting that homeowners are more likely to see fuel-related problems because of long storage and irregular equipment use.
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