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The past two weeks has been challenging for ethanol-blended gasoline or E10. Last September 8, The Philippine Daily Inquirer published an article citing Petron’s statement that ethanol gasoline can damage car engines. Specifically, Petron Chairperson and Chief Executive Officer Ramon Ang was quoted as saying that the company has received many reports that the current blend of E10 is highly-corrosive. In particular, it can damage the vehicle’s gas tank, fuel pump, carburetor, and fuel injector.
Ang further said that the root cause ofthis problem is the fact that the Philippine government did not specify that a dehydrator should be used to get rid of the water content in E10. As such, Petron made a request to the Department of Energy (DOE) to release new guidelines that will help protect Filipino motorists. It urged DOE to come up with more defined and clearer specifications for ethanol-blended gasoline.
DOE has been able to release a counterargument to this statement made by Petron. According to DOE Director Zenaida Monsada, DOE has been regularly meeting with representatives of oil firms, car manufacturers, and other ethanol players in their effort to improve the alternative fuel programs of the DOE. The department has clearly set internationally-accepted standards for E10 from the start, even before the official start of the mandated blend which was on February 2009. Monsada further noted that there are a lot of other factors that can lead to the corrosion of car engines.
In relation to this, several key players in the ethanol industry have also voiced out their views on E10. Art Cruz, Marketing Director for Seaoil Philippines, cited that ethanol has been widely-used in other countries as an alternative fuel for a long time. In fact, Brazil, the United Kingdom, and the United States have been using as much as 85% ethanol-blended gasoline  (E85) and there are no reported problems regarding this. Homer Maranan, Spokesperson for the Chamber of Automotive Manufacturers of the Philippines Inc. (CAMPI) whose members include the different vehicle manufacturers in the country, said that oil companies should also take the initiative to adopt good housekeeping skills from their refineries up to the gasoline stations in order to ensure that there will be no other reasons or causes for the E10 to become corrosive.
Last September 18, the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) released a statement, urging the Filipinos to support locally produced bioethanol . This is because ethanol fuel can help the local automobile industry and the economy to become cleaner and greener. WWF’s defense of E10 is actually quite similar to the article entitled “Is E10 Corrosive?”, posted here in BiofuelsHub.Com a few months back. The renowned environmentalist group said that all types of gasoline are corrosive and that E10, by itself, does not corrode vehicle gas tanks, fuel injectors, and carburetors. According to Yeb Saño, WWF Climate Change and Energy Program Director, “ethanol in itself is not corrosive”. It only becomes corrosive if there is water which can oxidize the gas tank and other steel components of the vehicle. WWF further cited that ethanol can provide the transportation sector with not only cleaner but also cheaper alternative for transportation fuel without requiring expensive and extensive car modifications.
There are a lot of possible scenarios in which water can come into contact with E10. For instance, in refineries, the ethanol storage tanks may have leaks in which water can seep through. The same is true during the course of transporting E10 from the refinery to the gasoline stations and in the gasoline station itself. This is probably one of the reasons why Maranan had commented that oil companies should take the initiative to implement good housekeeping measures and to monitor the compliance and maintenance especially of their blending areas. With good housekeeping and well-monitored and maintained environment, E10 contamination can be minimized or prevented.
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