According to environmental researcher Dr. Ron Sahu, the DOE ethanol study executive summary “does not accurately summarize the scope, results (or) uncertainties associated with the testing. Since most policy-makers will focus on the executive summary, this could result in misinformed policies based on misleading conclusions.”

The DOE report released last fall was covered extensively on powerETblog and in Power Equipment Trade magazine’s January-February issue, and documents the effects of E15 and E20 gasoline/ethanol blends on in-field automobiles and small engine products. The study revealed several concerns with small engine performance, including significant rise in engine exhaust temperatures, engine damage and operational problems in some cases, and most importantly, major safety issues including unintentional clutch engagement at idle speed.

“We need to acknowledge that current equipment—including boats, chain saws, lawnmowers, snowmobiles, motorcycles, generators and other small engine equipment—may be permanently damaged and poses a safety risk if E15 fuel is used. Current equipment is neither designed, built or warrantied for mid-level blends,” says Kris Kiser, Executive Vice President at OPEI.

The issue is much more pressing now that an ethanol industry trade group, Growth Energy, has filed a request with the EPA to expedite the formal fuel blending certification process and increase the allowable level of ethanol in common gasoline transportation fuel from 10% to 15% (E15). The group has asked EPA to waive its formal process, which can take several years of data-gathering, and the agency is required to respond within 270 days.

“The fact is the use of E15 and higher levels of ethanol is a complex issue, and it can’t be rushed by efforts that overlook the impacts on consumer safety and economic interests,” Kiser says. “OPEI fully supports congressional efforts to increase the use of cellulosic fuels. We can design products to run on higher levels of ethanol.”

But Kiser points out that existing small-engine equipment will likely experience performance irregularities and possible failure. Therefore, the public’s awareness, education and safety should be at the forefront of any discussion of introducing new fuel blends. He adds that the DOE study shows all 28 small engines tested had some significant problems with higher ethanol blends that the machines were not designed to operate on.

In response to the Growth Energy proposal, OPEI is submitting a letter to the EPA and DOE urging both agencies to utilize the existing formal waiver process. The process will provide the necessary studies and data to fully understand effects of introducing new fuel types into the marketplace. The studies also will provide information necessary to educate consumers about the use of mid-level ethanol fuels on existing and future products.

“OPEI is not anti-ethanol,” insists Kiser. “We support congressional efforts to get the U.S. off foreign sources of oil. But, we will not put people’s safety at risk in the process.”

“You can’t begin to approach the complexity of the small engine industry with the scope of this study,” says Kris Kiser, Outdoor Power Equipment Institute vice president of government affairs. “In our opinion, the study downplayed the challenges, and we’re very concerned with how they interpreted the data and wrote it up.”

The 136-page study, titled “Effects of Intermediate Ethanol Blends on Legacy Vehicles and Small Non-Road Engines, Report 1,” was released in October 2008 and is the first federal effort to gauge the impact that higher-level ethanol blends have on small engine operation. The study also looked at the effects of higher ethanol blends on legacy automobiles already on the road. PowerETblog recently covered the study’s results in a post, and a copy of the complete study can be downloaded here.

“A lot of people want this transition to be about automobiles,” Kiser says of the move toward more widespread use of higher ethanol blends in gasoline retailed throughout the country, adding that there are powerful political interests pushing to get more ethanol in the market. Kiser notes that many officials in the U.S. Dept. of Energy know that “moving small engines into mid-level ethanol blends will be extremely challenging with the 300 million legacy engines out there.”

According to Stihl Inc. national compliance director John Foster, “We found the study to be inconclusive, frankly, and too much of a ‘slam dunk’ with its conclusions.”

Kiser and Foster say the study overlooked many implications of higher level ethanol blends in small engines.“It’s obvious that anything higher than E10 (unblended) gasoline brings on a host of concerns, including enleanment, and heat issues in conjunction with catalytic converters—there are still a lot of unanswered questions,” Foster says. “Even the transition to E10 from a machine that has been running E0 can prove problematic during initial use.”

Both believe the study doesn’t accurately reflect real-world operating conditions. “They didn’t do anything related to evaporative emissions, there was no cold-start/warm-up testing, and we need more study on the effect on engine exhaust temps,” Kiser says.

To respond to the study, OPEI committees are currently preparing a formal letter of response that will be released by mid January, and the OPEI Technical Committee is currently working on testing protocols that better reflect actual operating conditions, more accurate “aging” process and cover other areas of concern.

GIE+EXPO

Yet another year closer to becoming one of those 20-year Louisville show visitors, I’m still finding neat things to do and see at GIE+EXPO, and this year was especially interesting with the economic turmoil occurring in financial markets and the increasing use of ethanol in gasoline that’s going to have a big impact on lawn and garden power equipment.

Thursday’s weather was beautiful, the kind of late October Mid-South fall day—sunny, in the 60s with a light breeze—that show organizers had in mind when the event was moved from the heat and humidity of late July several years ago. Friday was just the opposite: a nasty taste of winter with wind-driven rain and high temps in the low 50s. Show director Warren Sellers was talking a good game early Friday morning, with water running in the parking lots and the outdoor demo area’s Kawasaki blimp almost limp and getting pounded in the wind, about how it was just a passing shower, how they were putting some mulch down and the demo area would be re-opened any minute. Thinking there was no way, I was surprised as anyone to see the clouds clear in mid-afternoon and the demo area indeed re-opened for the last couple of hours on Friday.

Rain drove show visitors indoors on Day 2, leading to packed aisles.

Result of the weather was a super-crowded outdoor demo area on the show’s first day, and an aisle-jamming crowd driven indoors almost all day on GIE+EXPO’s second day. The third day featured good but reduced visitor traffic, as with any show’s last day. The big thing was I didn’t hear any exhibitors whining about lack of attendance—and usually by noon the first day you can find someone dissatisfied with visitor counts.

Among all the new product hoopla—the reason GIE+EXPO exists in the first place—highly insightful and informative sessions included industry leaders and top executive Dan Ariens, president of Ariens Co., and Fred Whyte, president of Stihl, Inc., who gave a joint presentation on the outlook for lawn and garden dealers, including taking questions from a large dealer crowd of more than 100 at The Dealer Experience. Outdoor Power Equipment Institute officials gave an interesting press conference on major issues affecting all of industry, and Stihl’s Eddie Anderson delivered a well-attended technical session covering ethanol impacts on small engines. And this is just a small slice of the events I was able to make.

Look for more coverage of GIE+EXPO here, in a special edition of PETnet Online coming out any hour now, and in the December hard-copy issue of Power Equipment Trade. For those keeping score, PETnet Online will have the most show photos, and the December issue will have the most overall event coverage in terms of sheer copy. While the blog and PETnet Online will have Dealers Choice Awards coverage, the most comprehensive coverage will be in the December issue and on the PET home page at poweret.com, which will highlight Dealers Choice Awards winners and finalists with product copy and photos.

There’s a lot coming in the next month or so through a variety of PET media outlets, so be sure and check it all out for complete coverage of industry’s biggest event!

Water-damaged carb, possibly from ethanol blended fuel

Ethanol is gasoline has become a fact of American life, with 10% ethanol blends at just about every station around. While 10% ethanol is a mixture that’s been approved by all automakers and just about all small engine manufacturers, the anecdotal evidence out there shows there are problems in small engines—especially older units. Want to confuse yourself? Just Google up “Small Engines Ethanol,” and the results will show that for every source claiming ethanol blends—even at 10%—are just fine (Renewable Fuels Assn., Minnesota Corn Growers, etc.), there’s another source, generally a local newspaper article, talking with dealers and small engine technicians who say they are seeing engine problems caused by ethanol. For example, here’s a recent article from the Green Bay Press Gazette that was included in the latest Outdoor Power Equipment & Engine Service Assn. “OPE-In-The-Know Newsletter”:

Some Question If Ethanol Blends Are Partly To Blame
By Nathan Phelps www.greenbaypressgazette.com

September 19 — Jim Schlumpf stops short of saying it’s because of ethanol, but in the last year, he’s seen a noticeable spike in the number of fuel-related repairs he’s taken care of at Jim’s Outboard Service Inc. in Hobart. “We don’t have any scientific evidence,” he said. “We have beliefs and ideas, but there’s nothing concrete where we can say, ‘Yes, this is causing it.’”

Regardless, several area marine engine service centers say they have fixed an increasing number of fuel-related problems ranging from deteriorating hoses to gunked-up carburetors. “It’s suspect,” Schlumpf said, about ethanol and the repair work he’s seen. “I used to be an engineer with Texaco, so I
know lubricants and fuels pretty well.”

The American Coalition for Ethanol states on its Web site E10 is “safe to use in small engines such as motorcycles, lawn mowers, trimmers, boats, personal watercraft, snowmobiles, ATVs, and many others.” However, the ethanol industry is running into concerns that the fuel additive is bad for boats and for outdoor power equipment, such as lawn mowers, chain saws and string trimmers. Experts say that some of the concerns are founded, while others are not.

And consumer fears have created a public relations problem for ethanol in many areas of the country. However, the impact of ethanol on boats and small engines could pose a more serious challenge for the industry’s long-term growth.

Like Jim’s, Mr. Outboards Watersports Marine in Lawrence has seen service for fuel-related issues rise. About 75 percent of its repair business is related to fuel issues — especially with older engines, said owner Glen Truttmann. “There has been a huge increase as people are having a harder time finding non-ethanol-blended fuel,” he said. “A lot of it is related to the shelf life of the fuel. A lot of time you’ll have a tank of gas in a boat for two or three months, so there are several different additives that can be put into the fuel tank and it will help eliminate some of those problems.”

Truttmann said they get information at least once a month from manufacturers regarding ethanol use in marine engines. Those companies have also developed fuel stabilizers specifically for gas blended with ethanol. “They know there’s a problem, and they’re doing their best to address it,” Truttmann said. “The additives are their best way of counteracting it right now.” He points out owners manuals advise owners to avoid ethanol.

The ethanol industry wants the Environmental Protection Agency to allow conventional cars and trucks to run on higher blends of ethanol than the 10 percent limit now allowed. But the agency can’t approve higher blends unless it is proved that the fuel would be OK for boats and power equipment as well as automobiles.
Determining automobile policy based on weed whackers is just ridiculous to me,” said Ron Lamberty, market development director of the American Council for Ethanol.

The ethanol industry is growing to a point where production will begin to saturate the market for 10 percent ethanol, estimated to be about 13 billion gallons. The industry is expected to produce nearly 10 billion gallons of ethanol this year. An additional 3 billion gallons of production capacity is under construction.

Congress could come under pressure to relax the national biofuels mandate if the EPA is unable to permit ethanol blends of more than 10 percent, Lamberty said. Under current law, motorists are required to use 36 billion gallons of biofuels by 2022.

Manufacturers of power equipment and boats say more research is needed before the government approves higher ethanol blends. “We’re not anti-ethanol. What we’re concerned about is this transition,” said Kris Kiser, a spokesman for the Outdoor Power Equipment Institute, which represents manufacturers such as Toro Co., Deere & Co. and Black and Decker Inc. Industry experts say ethanol poses three potential problems for boats: The alcohol can eat away the fiberglass tanks in a small number of older boats, dislodge gunk and clog filters, or absorb water from moisture-laden air, resulting in water getting into the fuel.

Bob Adriance, editor of the Virginia-based boat-safety journal Seaworthy, estimates about 5,000 to 10,000 of the 1.6 million boats registered around the country have fiberglass tanks that can be damaged by ethanol. The tanks have to be replaced unless ethanol-free gasoline is available. There are ways to deal with the other problems, Adriance said, including keeping spare filters handy until the ethanol cleans all of the gunk from the engine. Tanks also should be topped off to limit the amount of moisture-laden air that could
be inside.

Doug Smith, who runs a marina in Annapolis, Md., had to replace the fiberglass tank with a plastic version in his 1965 Bertram boat when ethanol was added to gasoline. But otherwise, the transition to ethanol has been problem-free, he said.

Going in the main entrance behind registration, PET Booth #11157 is two aisles behind the Toro booth, directly across from the Internet Cafe and near the Outdoor Power Equipment Institute (OPEI) booth. Standing at registration, look down the large corridor to the escalator on the left, where the Dealers Club Lounge area is located. The Dealer Experience classrooms are right across the corridor from the Dealer Club.