Alcolean –A Mix Of Ethanol & Gasoline

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The History Of Alcohol Fuels

Ethanol, now a hot technology, in the 1920s and

1930s,they were making ethanol – or at least knew

how-to. The Model T required only a carburetor

adjustment to burn alcohol instead of gasoline.

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Henrey Fords said that “Alcohol was the Fuel

Of The Future”.

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1826, Samuel Morey uses alcohol in the first American internal combustion engine prototype.

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1890, Alcohol-fueled engines were used in farm machinery, train locomotives, and cars in the U.S.

……..and Europe. Ethanol was the first fuel used by American cars before gasoline.

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1896, Henry Ford’s  first car, the Quadra cycle, ran on ethanol.

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1908, The Ford Model T is introduced. It could run on ethanol or gasoline.

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1909, The U.S. Geological Survey reports: “In regard to general cleanliness, such as absence of smoke

and disagreeable odors, alcohol  has many advantages over gasoline or kerosene as a fuel… The

exhaust from an alcohol engine is never clouded with a black or grayish smoke.” Overall, alcohol

was ” a more ideal fuel than gasoline.”

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1914, The Free Alcohol bill is amended again to decrease the regulatory burden and encourage

alcohol fuel production in the U.S.

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1917,Alexander Graham Bell says: “Alcohol makes a beautiful, clean and efficient fuel… Alcohol can be

manufactured from corn stalks, and in fact from almost any vegetable matter capable of

fermentation. We need never fear the exhaustion of our present fuel supplies so long as we can

produce an annual crop of alcohol to any extent desired.”^[15]

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1918, Scientific American says it is “now definitely established that alcohol can be blended with gasoline

to produce a suitable fuel .  Another article notes that the Pasteur Institute of France found

it could obtain 10 US gallons (38 L) of ethanol per ton of seaweed.

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1919, Prohibition police destroyed corn alcohol stills, which some farmers used to produce low cost

…. …ethanol fuel.

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In the 1920s and 1930s, Koolmotor, Benzalcool, Moltaco, Lattybentyl, Natelite, Alcool and Agrol are

some of the gasoline-ethanol blends of fuels once found in Britain, Italy, Hungary, Sweden, South

Africa, Brazil and the USA (respectively).

.

1920, David White, chief geologist of US Geological Survey, estimates total oil remaining in the US at 6.7

billion barrels (1.07×10⁹ m³). “In making this estimate, which included both proved reserves and

resources still remaining to be discovered, White conceded that it might well be in error by as much

as 25 percent.

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1920, Ethyl alcohol was blended with gasoline in every industrialized nation except the United States.

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1921, Leaded Gasolineis developed at the General Motors research laboratories in Dayton, Ohio.

GM researcher Thomas Midgley Jr. still maintains: “The most direct route which we now know for

converting energy from its source, the sun, into a material that is suitable for use in an internal

combustion motor is through vegetation to alcohol… It now appears that alcohol is the only liquid

from a direct vegetable source that combines relative cheapness with suitability (although other

sources might be found)… Alcohol will stand very high initial compressions without knocking,

and at high compressions is smooth and highly satisfactory.

.

British engineer Harry Ricardo patents racing fuels RD1 and RD2 (for Ricardo Discol) that

contained methanol and ethanol, acetone and small amounts of water. These were widely

used on race tracks throughout Europe and the US in the 1920s and 30s.

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Leaded gasoline is marketed, and by 1924 GM and Standard Oil Co. form the Ethyl Corp. 

Ethyl claims it has  “solved” the problem of engine knock, but public health scientists

(e.g. Alice Hamilton of  Harvard University) are appalled at the prospects for lead

poisoning and insist that alternatives such as ethanol blends are available.

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1923 Rolls-Royce engine designer Harry Ricardo writes: “…It is a matter of absolute necessity to find

an alternative fuel. Fortunately, such a fuel is in sight in the form of alcohol; this is a

vegetable product whose consumption involves no drain on the world’s storage and

which, in tropical countries at all events, can ultimately be produced in quantities

sufficient to meet the world’s demand, at all events at the present rate of consumption.

By the use of a fuel derived from vegetation, mankind is adapting the sun’s heat to the

development of motive power, as it becomes available from day to day; by using mineral

fuels, he is consuming a legacy – and a limited legacy at that – of heat stored away many

thousands of years ago. In the one case he is, as it were, living within his income, in the

other he is squandering his capital.

..

It is perfectly well known that alcohol is an excellent fuel, and there is little

doubt but that sufficient supplies could be produced within the tropical regions

of the British Empire…

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1923The price of alcohol from molasses was less than 20 cents per US gallon, while retail gasoline

prices had reached an all-time high of 28 cents per gallon. Standard Oil experiments with

a 10% alcohol, 90% gasoline blend for a few months to increase octane and stop engine knock.

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1923,French assembly passes the Carburant National law requiring gasoline importers to buy alcohol for

10% blends from the State Alcohol Service. The law has a far-reaching impact as many other nations,

especially Brazil and other sugar-cane growing countries, were influenced to enact similar laws based

on the French and German programs.

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October of 1924, a catastrophic miscalculation in the production of leaded gasoline causes at least 17

refinery deaths and many dozens of permanently debilitating injuries. GM and Standard very nearly

abandon leaded gasoline, but decide to defend it, claiming (contrary to their own prior published

research) that “”So far as science knows at the present time, tetraethyl lead is the only material

available which can bring about these [antiknock] results. “the Chemurgy movement emerges,

supported by farmers, Republicans, and Henry Ford. Along with ethanol, chemurgy research

included the industrial development of agricultural raw materials such as hemp, soybeans and new

products from biological materials, such as hemp & soybean plastics and inks.

..

1925, France, Germany, Brazil, and other countries had a “mandatory blending” law. It required gasoline

retailers to blend alcohol in with all gasoline sold.

 

1925Henry Ford tells The New York Times that ethyl alcohol is “the fuel of the future” which ” is going

to come from fruit like from apples, weeds, sawdust — almost anything.

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There is fuel in every bit of vegetable matter that can be fermented. There’s enough alcohol

in one year’s yield of an acre of potatoes to drive the machinery necessary to cultivate the

fields for a hundred years.”

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1926, US Public Health Service allows leaded gasoline to return to the market.

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1928, Harry Ricardo, National Distillers Co. and Shell Oil introduce an alcohol fuel blend in the

United Kingdom called “Cleveland Discol.” The ethanol blend is a popular unleaded gasoline

brand and is sold through 1968.

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1930,The Great Depression forced many more farmers to move to the cities looking for work,

0000 leaving their alcohol fuel stills behind. Henry Ford a farmer himself, supported ethanol’s use

0000 over gas. Ford Motors originally built cars that could be changed slightly to run on gasoline,

0000 alcohol, or kerosene.

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AuguThe German government required all gasoline importers to buy 2.5% of the volume

of their imports from the German Alcohol Monopoly, and the ratio was increased to 6%

and then 10% by 1932.  Estimates of alcohol used in 1932 vary from 44 million liters to

about 175 million liters. Some 36,000 small farm alcohol stills, owned by the monopoly,

were in operation at this time. By 1938, Germany was producing about 267 million liters

of ethanol, about two thirds from potatoes and the rest from grain, wood sulfite liquors

and beets. Some 89 million liters of methanol were produced from coal, while other synthetic

fuels included 550 million liters of benzene and over one billion liters of synthetic gasoline.

All told, 54% of the pre-war German fuel production was derived from non-petroleum sources,

of which 8% was ethanol from renewable sources. 

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1933, Faced with the 25% unemployment of the Great Depression, the European concept of finding

new markets for surplus farm products is widely discussed, with ethanol-gasoline blending

among the most significant. Fuel blending experiments begin in Peoria, IL, Spokane WA,

Lincoln, NE, and Ames, IA. Federal and state governments consider tax advantages to help

ethanol production and increase employment among farmers By 1935.

1933, A campaign to end Prohibition in the United States emerges. Concerned about renewed interest

in ethanol for fuel, the American Petroleum Institute begins a campaign against ethanol blends,

claiming such “will harm the petroleum industry and the automobile industry as well as state and

national treasuries by reducing oil consumption,” the sole beneficiaries allegedly being distillers,

railroads (which would transport the alcohol) and bootleggers “to whom would be opened brand

new fields of fraud.” Prohibition ends with the passage of the Twenty-first Amendment to the United

States Constitution on December 5, 1933.

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1937, the farm chemurgy movement finds backers for the Agrol ethanol fuel plant, created at Atchison,

Kansas. For two years, ethanol blends were sold at around 2,000 service stations in the U.S.

Midwest. Agrol plant managers complained of sabotage and bitter infighting by the oil

industry, and the cheaper price of gasoline. Agrol sold for 17 cents per gallon, while leaded

gasoline sold for 16 cents.

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1939, Agrol production shuts down.

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1940, First U.S. fuel ethanol plant built. The U.S. Army built and operated an ethanol plant in Omaha,

0000 Nebraska, to produce fuel for the army and to provide ethanol for regional fuel blending.

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1940,Virtually no commercial ethanol fuel was sold to the general public in the U.S due to the low

price of gasoline fuel.

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1942, chemists who designed the Agrol ethanol plant, especially Leo Christensen, go to work producing

ethanol for aviation fuel and synthetic “Buna-S” rubber for By 1944, petroleum based synthetic

rubber production lags, and three quarters of all tires, raincoats, engine gaskets and other rubber

products for the war effort come from ethanol.

1942.

A war investigating committee led by then-Senator (and future president) Harry Truman 

makes public evidence that the oil industry had colluded with German chemical companies,

especially I.G. Farben, to prevent the development of synthetic rubber production in the United

States. Standard Oil (Exxon) had entered a partnership that it described as a “full marriage”

designed to “outlast the war” no matter who won.

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1949, S. J .W. Pleeth, chemist for the Cleveland Discol company in Great Britain, writes: “The bias

aroused by the use of alcohol as a motor fuel has produced [research] results that are incompatible

with each other … Countries with considerable oil deposits — such as the US — or which control oil

deposits of other lands — such as Holland — tend to produce reports antithetical to the use of fuels

alternative to petrol; countries with little or no indigenous oil tend to produce favorable reports. The

contrast … is most marked. One can scarcely avoid the conclusion that the results arrived at are

those best suited to the political or economic aims of the country concerned or the industry

sponsoring the research. We deplore this partisan use of science, while admitting its existence,

even in the present writer.” 

1964, a seven-car crash kills drivers Dave MacDonald and Eddie Sachs on the second lap of

the Indianapolis 500, as over 150 US gallons (570 L) of gasoline burned. Johnny Rutherford, who

was also involved in the crash, survived, mainly because his methanol-fueled car had not ignited.

The United States Auto Club bans gasoline and switches all cars to methyl alcohol (methanol), a rule

which would stay for 41 years before ending after the 2005 race.

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1967 to 1970, During the Nigerian Civil War  Engineers in the breakaway republic of Biafra resorted

to powering vehicles with alcohol. Initially, alcohol was used to supplement the crude oil refining

capacity which the fledgling state had under its control, but as the Soviet and UK backed Nigerian

army seized the oil producing regions, and with the Nigerian embargo beginning to bite, alcohol

became the dominant source of fuel for the economy.

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1971, the Nebraska Agricultural Products Industrial Utilization Committee (or “Gasohol” Committee)

is formed to find new uses for surplus grain. The commission tests ethanol-gasoline blends in

thousands  of cars over millions of miles, proving that ethanol can be used as an octane-boosting

additive to replace leaded gasoline.

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1973, the Arab oil embargo creates a worldwide energy crisis, leading to intensified search for alternative

energy sources. Also, in the same year, the government of Brazil starts the program “Pró-Álcool“

in order to substitute gas-powered vehicles in favor of automobiles powered by ethanol. Such program

would lead to the development of the first ethanol powered automobile motor in the world.

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1975, U.S. begins to phase out lead in gasoline. MTBE eventually replaced lead. Note: Later, between 2004

0000 to 2006, MTBE banned in almost all states, due to groundwater contamination and health risks.

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1979, President Jimmy Carter‘s administration creates federal incentives for ethanol production.

Federal and state subsidies for ethanol amount to about $11 billion between 1979 and 2000, as

compared to about $150 billion in tax credits for the oil industry (from 1968–2000), according

to the General Accounting Office. 

…

1980s, over 100 new corn alcohol production plants are built and over a billion US gallons of ethanol

for fuel were sold per year. The ethanol program is controversial for several reasons, not the least

of which was that the ethanol industry was dominated by one company – Archer Daniels Midland 

of Peoria, Ill.

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Oxygenates added to gasoline included MTBE (Methyl Tertiary Butyl made from natural gas and

000 petroleum) and ETBE (Ethyl Tertiary Butyl Ether – made from ethanol and E10/E85).

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1984, the number of ethanol plants peaked at 163 in the U.S., producing 595 million US gallons

(2,250,000 m³) of ethanol that year.

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1988, Denver, Colorado, was the first state to mandate ethanol oxygenates fuels for winter use to control

0000 carbon monoxide emissions. Other cities soon followed.

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The George H. W. Bush administration proposes a cleanup of “air toxics” in gasoline, focusing

on replacing benzene octane boosters with ethanol. The proposal leads to one part of the 1990

 Clean Air Act.

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The late 1980s and 1990s, an oil surplus drives gasoline prices down as low as $12 per barrel, driving

most of the ethanol industry into bankruptcy.

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1990 and 1992, Congress passes amendments to the Clean Air Act encouraging the use of ethanol

and other oxygenated fuels as replacements for benzene, toluene and xylene octane boosters.

MTBE becomes the oil industry’s favorite additive, but as water pollution problems were

recognized, MTBE is banned in California. Ethanol production rises to the 4-billion-US-gallon.

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1992, The Energy Policy Act of 1992 (EP Act) was passed by Congress to reduce our nation’s dependence

on imported petroleum by requiring certain fleets to acquire alternative fuel vehicles, which

are capable of operating on non-petroleum fuels.

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Between 1997 and 2002, three million U.S. cars and light trucks are produced which could run on 

E85, a blend of 85%  ethanol with 15% gasoline. Almost no gas stations sell this fuel however.

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In the early 2000s, the invasion of Iraq makes Americans aware of their dependence on foreign oil.

This and worry over anthropogenic climate change causes leading alternative energies like

biofuel, solar and wind to expand 20 to 30% yearly.

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2003, California began switching from MTBE to ethanol to make reformulated gasoline. (California

was the first state to completely ban MTBE, effective (MTBE) is a flammable liquid that has

 been used as an additive for unleaded gasoline since the 1980s. MTBE increases octane and

 oxygen levels in gasoline and reduces pollution emissions.

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Almost ALL states have followed California’s lead, banning MTBE, a few states still have lawsuits

pending with the EPA for exemption from MTBE ban), resulting in MTBE being replaced by ethanol

nationwide.

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In 2004, Crude oilprices rise by 80%. Gasoline prices rise 30% in the U.S. Diesel fuel rises almost 50%.

These rises are caused by hurricane damage to oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico, attacks on Iraqi oil

pipelines, disruptions elsewhere, and rising demand for gasoline in Asia, as Asians buy more cars.

Alcohol fuel prices are much closer to the price of gasoline. The ethanol industry in the USA makes

225,000 barrels (35,800 m³) per day in August, an all-time record. Some conventional oil fuel

companies are investing in alcohol fuel. Oil reserves are forecast to last about 40 more years. Total

use (demand) of ethanol is 3.53 billion US gallons (13,400,000 m³).

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2005Bombardier Recreational Products (BRP – OMC) is the first marine manufacturer to receive the

EPA “Clean Air Excellence Award”, for their newly re-designed outboard engine called the

Evinrude Etec, specifically designed to run onE10 ethanol gas. Almost all marine engines

manufactured prior  to 2000 prohibit use of alcohol fuel. See EPA warnings to boat owners

and other widespread precautionary statements issued by all major engine manufacturers

regarding use of alcohol fuel in a conventional engine.

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In 2005, E85 sells for 45 cents (or 30-75 cents wholesale) less than gasoline on average in the United

States. More than 4 million flexible-fuel (capable of running on E85 as well as gasoline) vehicles exist

in the United States. About 400 filling stations exist in the US that sell E85 fuel, mostly in the Midwest.

Gasoline prices rise as ethanol prices stay the same, due to rapidly growing ethanol supply and federal

tax subsidies for ethanol. Wholesale ethanol prices drop nearly 30% between January and April, or

$1.75 to $1.23 per gallon in the U.S.

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The earliest-documented test of driving a car designed solely for gasoline use, long-distance

solely on 100% butanol fuel occurs as American motorist David Ramey drove from Blacklick,

Ohio to San Diego,  California using 100% butanol in an unmodified 1992 Buick Park Avenue.

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The Energy Policy Act of 2005, written by the EPA contains regulations to ensure that gasoline sold

in the United States contains a minimum volume of renewable fuel (ethanol is a renewable fuel).

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In 2006, the Indy Racing League switches to a 10% ethanol-90% methanol fuel mixture, as part of a

phase-in to an all-ethanol formula in 2007. Bill Gates buys a quarter of Pacific Ethanol Inc. 

for $84 million.

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Meny marine and auto engine owners report marine damage and severe engine failure caused by

ethanol blend fuels – Investigations reveal gas sold contained over the legal limit of 10% for E10

or was used in an engine not designed for gasohol and all types of alcohol-blends of gas.

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2006 The Renewable Fuel Standard Program (RFS) was signed. This national renewable fuel program was

0000 designed to encourage the blending of renewable fuels (ethanol) into our nation’s motor vehicle

0000 fuel. The nationwide Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS), would double the use of ethanol and

  biodiesel  by 2012.

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In 2007, United NationsFood and Agriculture Organization Special Rapporteur for the Right to

Food urges five-year moratorium on food based biofuels, including ethanol, saying its development

is a “crime against humanity.” The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) calls this

“regrettable,” and UN secretary-general Ban Ki-Moon, called for more scientific research.

“Clearly biofuels have great potential for good and, perhaps, also for harm.”

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About 6.5 billion gallons were produced. Energy Independence and Security Act signed by

Congress and the President, required the use of 15 billion gallons of renewable (ethanol) fuel

by 2015.

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2009. Surge in individual states mandating the use of 10% ethanol E10, gasoline. Rapid increase in

0000 documented engine problems (drivability, performance, parts damage), and lawsuits related to

0000 10 blends of gasoline. Despite 10% being the universally accepted legal limit for ethanol in

0000 conventional gas-powered engines.

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ACE, Growth Energy and 54 ethanol producers submitted a waiver application to increase E10 to

E15.  Without opposition by 5/21/09, E15 was be allowed at public pumps

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2008, U.S. ethanol production capacity was at 7.2 billion gallons, with an additional 6.2

billion gallons of capacity under construction.

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Bill Gates sells most Pacific shares held by Cascade Investment for a loss of $38.9 million.

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2019, The EPA’s secretive issuance of “small refinery exemptions” allows dozens of oil refiners to avoid

RFS blending obligations, undercutting the ethanol market and causing more than 20 plants

to temporarily shutter.

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2020, The COVID-19 pandemic leads to global lockdowns and fuel demand plummets, causing many

ethanol producers to pivot to hand sanitizer and industrial alcohol production. At the peak of the

crisis, over half the industry’s capacity was shuttered and roughly three-quarters of ethanol plants

were offline or operating at reduced rates.

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In its first decade, ethanol generates more greenhouse gas reductions than any other fuel used to

meet LCFS requirements in California’s LCFS program.

2021, RFA ethanol producer members commit to ensuring ethanol achieves a net-zero carbon footprint,

on average, by 2050 or sooner.

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As the industry begins to recover from COVID-induced demand destruction, U.S. ethanol production

rebounds by 8 percent over 2020 levels.

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The White House announced the Sustainable Aviation Fuels “Grand Challenge,” a strategic initiative

to increase SAF production to at least 3 billion gallons annually by 2030.

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2022, Recognizing the ability of ethanol to extend domestic fuel supplies in the wake of Russia’s invasion

of Ukraine, the EPA issues emergency waivers removing the summertime barrier to E15 and

allowing year-round sales of the fuel. EPA would go on to take similar action in both 2023 and 2024.

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The Inflation Reduction Act is signed into law. The legislation provides grant funding for higher-blend

biofuels infrastructure; extends several current biofuel tax credits; creates new tax credits for clean

fuel production (45Z) and sustainable aviation fuel (40B); and enhances support for carbon capture,

utilization, and storage.

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2023, The RFA debuts the world’s first Plug-in Hybrid Electric Flex Fuel Vehicle (PHEFFV), a 2022 Ford

Escape that combines the benefits of a flex fuel vehicle (FFV) capable of operating on low-carbon

E85, and a plug-in battery electric vehicle.

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The EPA finalizes RFS volumes for 2023-2025, marking the first time the agency set standards for

multiple years at a time. It also marks the beginning of the “post-2022 era” for the RFS, in which

there are no specific Congressionally mandated volumes and EPA has more discretion to establish

RFS levels.

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2024, The EPA gives final approval to a petition from the Governors of eight Midwest states allowing

permanent, year-round sales of E15 in those states beginning in 2025.

North America’s first commercial ethanol-to-jet SAF facility begins operations in Soperton, Georgia.

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2025, 20th anniversary of the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS), which has successfully lowered gas

prices and improved U.S. energy independence, while contributing to stronger farms and cleaner air.

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On Oct. 2, Gov. Gavin Newsom of California signed legislation allowing E15 in the state, the final one

 to approve the lower-cost fuel blend.

 

For Producers For Retailers

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Michael Shapiro

(Liberty Mortgage)

4415 Harrison  Suite 326,  Hillside, IL  60162  

Phone: 773-677-6460 Email: libmtg2@gmail.com