A team at the UNL Engineering Department—led by Dr. Rajib Saha, Assistant Professor of Chemical and Bimolecular Engineering and BMP affiliate faculty member—completed a summary of the E30 demonstration and reported the safety of using the fuel in non-FFVs. The team reached its conclusion after a yearlong demonstration, permitted by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), compared various data points among a fleet of state-owned, non-FFVs. The full results of the demonstration are published in the journal Fuel. “There has been inconsistent messaging that using higher blends of ethanol reduces the fuel efficiency or wears down parts,” said Adil Alsiyabi, UNL PhD student and lead researcher on the project. “But what the results show is that none of that is true. By going through rigorous testing, we’ve proven that higher ethanol blends do not decrease efficiency or compromise engine performance. Our goal was to find out if the vehicles on the road today can use ethanol blends up to E30 with no loss in fuel mileage and no mechanical issues.”
