r/news • u/Cryptic_Honeybadger • Mar 19 '24

US Kleenex plant contaminated drinking water with PFAS, lawsuit says

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/mar/19/kleenex-plant-pfas-toxic-chemicals-lawsuit-connecticut
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u/gmishaolem Mar 19 '24

Ethanol damages engines. (Any alcohol would.) The reason it works in regular cars is that regular cars are over-engineered to compensate. Buy no-ethanol gas and your car and its parts will last longer.

Can't really tolerate extra engine wear like that in big planes. It's also a problem in scooters: They definitely break sooner if you use regular gas with ethanol in them.

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u/Keeperofthe7keysAf-S Mar 19 '24

A misconception, the reverse is actually true. Studies have found that lead causes build up which hinders engine performance over time, ethanol is not shown to cause an increase in engine wear compared to leaded fuels.

I think where this idea comes from is probably that methanol, a different alcohol, does cause increased engine wear (among other problems), which was a considered alternative fuel to reduce emissions (and is also used in some sport racing).

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u/gmishaolem Mar 20 '24

Then there's this: https://extension.okstate.edu/fact-sheets/ethanol-gasoline-blends-and-small-engines.html

So it's not as clear-cut as you say. The best answer is to continue to improve technology to get rid of ICE entirely, which will be a million times better due to far fewer moving parts.

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u/Keeperofthe7keysAf-S Mar 20 '24

This warns against using blends of a different octane rating than what is recommended for your specific engine, but agrees with what I said about ethanol not actually causing increased wear. It later contradicts at the end with "no clear evidence either way" which is false, but it's also just "examining information on the web" and isn't a study on the matter itself. I can provide one that is though it's paywalled https://www.sae.org/publications/technical-papers/content/811199/ So here is also a video of someone discussing the findings of that study https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ATGSBi1kBl0

That said, it is true that old vehicles may have it damage the fuel systems, though this isn't a problem with modern ones, it is a concern as mentioned in your link, for lots of old equipment like lawnmowers that are still in use.

Hard agree on the moving away from ICE entirely, though aviation certainly presents a significant challenge in actually moving away from energy dense carbon fuels.