Ethanol-blended gasoline is safe
Posted on September 12th, 2009
In response to concerns earlier raised by Petron Corp., Energy Secretary Angelo T. Reyes, together with the members of the local ethanol industry said that local ethanol poses no danger to vehicles and is safe to use.
Reyes said, “Ethanol is compatible with fuel-injected cars that have been properly maintained.†The group is out to disprove reports that the current ethanol-blended gasoline (E-10) could damage car engines.
The local ethanol, according to Reyes, has even surpassed Philippine National Standards (PNS) set by the Department of Energy (DOE). The purity of local ethanol was 99.8 percent, just above the 99.3 percent standard.
Other countries have long been using ethanol as fuel for vehicles. The Philippines merely replicated the best practices of other countries, such as Brazil, which has been using ethanol for 35 years now. Oil companies in the Philippines have yet to receive complaints from consumers regarding the use of ethanol-blended gasoline in their vehicles.
Earlier, Petron sounded the alarm saying that the current ethanol-blended gasoline could damage car engines, saying that ethanol-blended fuel is highly corrosive. The country’s biggest oil refiner and retailer also urged the DOE to come up with clearer specification for the fuel blend.
Petron chair and chief executive officer Ramon S. Ang claimed that local ethanol mixed with gasoline could cause damage to a car’s gas tank, fuel pump, carburetor and fuel injector. Ang also raised the concern that there was no specification from the government if there should be a dehydrator to remove the water content, which is what makes the ethanol-blended gasoline (E-10) highly corrosive.
Biofuel expert Alex Loinaz said that this was a misconception, because ethanol, as a solvent, has appropriate additives that can even help clean a vehicle’s fuel tank.
Reyes added that corrosion in certain vehicle parts may be due to other reasons, such as the accumulation of other fuels previously used and substandard replacement parts.
But the energy secretary still directed the National Biofuels Board to “dig deeper into the matter†to address Petron’s concern.
