Ethanol for Dummies

Structure of ethanol

Not even the most demanding staff member of the Antisocial Network expects freelance writers and bloggers to have encyclopedic knowledge, but we certainly wish that they could cover the basics of whatever topic they choose to address. Not so, with eHow's Lexa W. Lee (back again), who gave her readers short shrift in "What Is E85 Octane Fuel?"¹ (now at ItStillRuns.com). Never mind that the question is itself misleading, even nonsensical – that "85" refers not to the mix's octane, but to the percentage of ethanol – Lexa was happy to collect her ten bucks for cutting-rewording-pasting a few incomplete bits of information.

Lexa says that Ethanol has "advantages":

"E85 burns more cleanly than gasoline, producing fewer benzene and hydrocarbon emissions. It also breaks down quickly in water, causing less damage to the environment, according to E85Fuel.com."

We're not so sure the fact that ethanol's soluble in water translates to "breaks down in water" anywhere besides LexaLand, but that's not really the point. What is the point is that Ms. Lee doesn't bother to list any disadvantages of ethanol, leaving her post unbalanced.  Chief among the disadvantages Lexa doesn't bother to address is the energy content of ethanol. Burning ethanol (as, for instance, in an internal combustion engine) produces approximately 80% as much energy, gallon for gallon, as regular gasoline. That means lower gas mileage.

Don't believe us? You could always look it up - which we're pretty sure Lexa didn't. That means she's a fine candidate to be our Dumbass of the Day.

¹ The original has been deleted by Leaf Group, but can still be accessed using the Wayback machine at archive.org. Its URL was   http://www.ehow.com/facts_7342503_e85-octane-fuel_.html

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