anyone running bioethanol in the R56 yet? I have been reading that the performance is incredible, plus, eco-friendly.

 

Where would you be able to get bioethanol? Would the engine require modificiation?

 

Are you asking about the E85 fuels?

I'm not sure about the 2nd Gen MINIs, but the 1st Gen MINIs are not to be run on any fuel with higher than 10% ethanol. I've heard of it possibly causing engine problems, and that it would void the warranty. You may want to check with the dealer or in your owners manual before trying it.

 

Most gas sold these days already has 10% ethanol in it. Anything more than 10% ethanol would mess up the engine and the fuel system.

 

The MINI is not designed to run on E85. Nothing over E10, actually. Ethanol, besides being corrosive, has a different stoichiometric lambda than gasoline. The MINI is designed to handle the small 10% of Ethanol in our gasoline, but the ECU does not have any sensor to "see" fuel beyond 10% like FlexFuel cars [like most not-so-Big-3 cars], so it would end up running dangerously lean with E85 or E100.

 

okay, i figured there would be complications. I was thinking about e85, because i have heard of other cars, (especially in europe) that were tuned for that and the higher octane results in a large increase in power.

 

Ethanol has a lower energy content per unit volume. That said, stoich for ethanol is much more "rich" than gasoline. The net result is you can get approximately 10% more power with ethanol over gasoline. The downside is fuel consumption is massively increased, about 25% +/-5%.

 

I was in Brazil in the early 80s and they used a lot of ethanol then. It was great...Rio smelled like fried chicken or french fries, wherever you went; the heavier the traffic, the better the smell!

 

Ethanol may or may not be eco-friendly, depending upon how it's derived. Ethanol derived from corn is not sustainable, owing to the huge amounts of corn that would need to be planted each year to yield enough to power the cars in the U.S. As a subsidized boondoggle for farmers, it's a great success. Also, to generate a gallon of ethanol from corn you need to input almost the equivalant amount of energy. It's also a bad idea to use your food supply to fill your your gas tank.

 

Indeed, corn-based ethanol is a scam. I hate that crap. If my fuel gauge or fuel pump prematurely fails, I am going to blame it on this crap. I always fill up at Top Tier stations such as Chevron and Shell hoping that the ethanol content of the gas I am getting is not greater than 10%. It has been reported that some stations out there are selling gas with ethanol content greater than 10%.

 

Just running the standard 10% ethanol pushed in a lot of states already shortens the engine life... also, creating ethanol fuel is environmentally destructive, the consumption/waste impact is larger than gasoline, and growing of corn for ethanol contributes to global famine by depriving 3rd world countries of food. There really is no good reason to use ethanol fuels.

 

Celluosic ethanol is the way to go.

Also when I was in Germany last year my cousin showed me the hops fields. I thought it was for beer, he said no, bio-diesel.

 

+1.



Im curious about the use of the term bio-ethanol. At least 99% of all ethanol is produced from bio-mass. Small quantities of synthetic ethanol might be produced, but I am not aware of it.

 

Though modern fuel systems and engines are designed apprpriately and have not been shown to fail early as a result of the use of E10, I agree with your premise that the energy equation of enthanol production and the accompanying loss of food production make the use of ethanol as a fuel unviable over the long-term. The only reason it works today is tax credits for fuel manufacturers.

 

Yes, Iogen Corporation in Ottawa, ON has developed an enzymatic method to produce ethanol from corn stalks, so you can have your fuel and eat your corn too. Last I heards they were in the process of improving yields and ramping up production size.

 

in other words, I doesn't at all work.

 

You doesn't?