We have previously posted an article entitled “Is E10 Corrosive?” to explain the issue of ethanol-blended gasoline allegedly being more corrosive than regular gasoline. For this week, BiofuelsHub introduces the common corrosion inhibitors which are added to ethanol-blended gasoline.

To give a brief overview, corrosion inhibitors are types of fuel additives that are used to inhibit or suppress the corrosive properties of fuel. In turn, this prevents the corrosion or rusting of the gas tank as well as the other components of the fuel system.

Oil companies are required to add corrosion inhibitors not only to ethanol-blended gasoline (or E10) but also to other gasoline products. This is because all types of petroleum products have corrosive properties. However, the corrosion inhibitors should be added based on the “treat rate”. The “treat rate” is the right amount of fuel additive that should be added to the ethanol or regular gasoline for it to provide efficient corrosion protection. In the case of ethanol, corrosion inhibitors are added to make their corrosion protection capabilities comparable to those of other motor fuels.

The following are the common corrosion inhibitors that are shown to be effective for ethanol-blended gasoline.

Table 1: Common Corrosion Inhibitors for Ethanol-Blended Gasoline

*PTBE means pounds per thousand barrels of ethanol.
**previously known as Betz CAN 13

Note that the given treat rates here are recommended and are established for certain ethanol-blended gasoline blends only. These are not necessarily representative or applicable to other ethanol fuel mixtures available in the market. As such, oil companies should conduct appropriate tests to establish the treat rate suitable for their gasoline products. In addition, there are also other brands or types of corrosion inhibitors that oil companies may opt to use.

With this, it is clear that apart from ethanol-blended gasoline being not detrimentally corrosive to vehicles  oil companies are doing their share by ensuring that their ethanol-blended gasoline or E10 have corrosion inhibitors to enhance the corrosion protection properties.

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