EPA looking into higher octane gasoline

[kevm14]

http://autoweek.com/article/car-news/ep ... e-gasoline

The caption quote at the top basically says it all:

Chris Grundler: "For us to intervene and set fuel standards, we need to show that there is an air quality benefit or that, absent regulations, that it is somehow inhibiting the after-treatment or other parts of the vehicle. And that the benefits outweigh the costs."

Exactly right.

Higher octane gasoline likely won’t be available until the next set of fuel economy and emissions standards take effect after 2025. The deliberations about how high to raise octane are still probably a few years off. But the lobbying is starting to gain traction.

Of course you can bet that another lobby is salivating at the chance to sell even more expensive gas (premium is already disproportionately expensive in most markets).

Dan Nicholson, General Motors’ vice president of global propulsion systems, told me recently he could boost fuel economy in most engines by about 5 percent if America had the same higher octane gasoline as Europe.

I'm a little surprised to see this. Europe uses a different octane scale than we do so I didn't think their octane was really any higher than ours.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Octane_rating

Of course some pockets of the US have E85 which is 94-96 AKI.

So we use AKI or R+M/2. Last column. Europe seems to be mostly 93 just like ours...

[kevm14]

You might think that adding octane is just a simple matter of dumping more ethanol into the mix. It’s not.

While adding ethanol does bump up octane, it also lowers fuel economy because the ethanol that replaces gasoline is less energy dense. Also, higher concentrations of ethanol require automakers to make changes to fuel systems. Edmunds conducted a test with a flexible fuel Chevy truck that shows the differences, not just in fuel economy, but also in costs, using regular gasoline vs. E85, which contains 15 percent gasoline and 85 percent enthanol. Go here and check it out. http://www.edmunds.com/fuel-economy/e85 ... -test.html

Oooh, that'll be worth a read. I kind of already know what the results will be though.

[kevm14]

Premium fuel costs around 53 cents more per gallon than regular in many parts of the country -- a fact that has many motorists grumbling. Automakers don’t want to force higher fuel prices on their customers.

Much of the price difference for premium gasoline is because it’s more costly to refine and because oil companies produce premium fuel at much lower volume than regular. But if the EPA does mandate higher octane gasoline, I think the cost difference between regular and premium will evaporate pretty quickly. And there is a precedent.

When the EPA decided to dramatically reduce sulfur in diesel fuel a decade ago, the oil industry cried foul, saying diesel prices would increase because of the added expense of refining the cleaner fuel. Today, diesel in most areas costs less than regular gasoline.

Diesel less than regular? Not in the northeast...