Renewable and Sustainable Transportation Fuels

Currently a total of 17 states in the US use bio-ethanol to replace methyl tert-butyl ether (MTBE) as a safer oxygenate for gasoline formulations (www.eia.gov ). Moreover, E15 (15% ethanol blend) was recently approved by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for use in select automobiles from 2001 and newer model years, and in all flexible fuel vehicles (FFVs). It has been projected that in the US by the year 2035, 63% of the bio-ethanol produced in the US will be used for E10 and E15, while 37% will be used in FFVs operating on E85 (85% ethanol blended with 15% gasoline), which should significantly reduce US consumption of petroleum- based transportation fuel (http://www.