Journal Article
Coordinated Strategies for Ethanol and Flex Fuel Vehicle Deployment: A Quantitative Assessment of the Feasibility of Biofuel Targets
2010-04-12
2010-01-0735
The goal of this paper is to quantitatively assess the implications of congressionally mandated biofuel targets on requirements for ethanol blending, distribution, and usage in spark ignition engines in the U.S. light-duty vehicle fleet. The “blend wall” is a term that refers to the maximum amount of ethanol that can be blended into the gasoline pool without exceeding the legal volumetric blend limit of 10%. Beyond the blend wall, the additional ethanol fuel must be used in higher blends of ethanol like E85. Once the blend wall is reached, the existing fleet of flex fuel vehicles (FFVs) will be required to use E85 for some percentage of vehicle miles traveled (VMT) in order to achieve the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) targets.
