Are there advantages of using hE85/hE90 over anhydrous E85?
For maximum use of ethanol’s benefits, a much higher compression ratio (12-13) should be used. This would render that engine unsuitable for gasoline use with conventional internal combustion engines which require a compression ratio of 9-10. When ethanol fuel availability allows high-compression ethanol-only vehicles to be practical (or possibly via flexible fuel technology), the fuel efficiency of such engines should be equal or greater than current gasoline engines. However, since the energy content (by volume) of ethanol fuel is less than gasoline, a larger volume of anhydrous ethanol fuel (151%) would still be required to produce the same amount of energy. By enhancing engine performance via the water contained in hydrous ethanol, fuel consumption and emissions could actually be reduced in comparison with anhydrous ethanol utilized in gasoline blends including E85 to E100 ethanol fuels. There have been studies performed on comparing performance levels for hydrous and anhydrous etha