Worried about pump corrosion, BP puts ethanol product on hold.

[NNadir]

Ethanol Could Corrode Pumps, Testers Say

By ALEXEI BARRIONUEVO
Published: October 27, 2006
CHICAGO, Oct. 26 — The farm-produced fuel that is supposed to help wean America from its oil addiction is under scrutiny for its potentially corrosive qualities.

E85, a blend of 85 percent corn-based ethanol and 15 percent gasoline, could be eating away at metal and plastic parts in pumps being used to dispense the fuel at gasoline stations, Underwriters Laboratories, the private product-safety testing group, said this month.

BP, the British oil company, said on Thursday that it would delay the expansion of E85 at its American gasoline outlets until the laboratories certified an E85 dispensing system. “BP is tracking this issue very closely,” Valerie Corr, a company spokeswoman, said.

Underwriters Laboratories and the Department of Energy are holding two days of hearings next week at the testing group’s headquarters outside Chicago, inviting oil companies, automakers and researchers to help develop standards for E85 equipment.

Underwriters Laboratories, which certifies the safety of everything from toasters to televisions, has temporarily withdrawn authorization for the U.L.-approved label on parts used in E85 dispensers. Those dispensers, it turns out, were modified from regular gasoline dispensers and were certified only for a maximum of 15 percent ethanol concentration; U.L. said it had never certified any E85-specific pumps.

The reversal has heightened concerns among some oil companies about the safety of E85 pumps on the market and threatens to slow the proliferation of the fuel...

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/27/business/27ethanol.html?_r=1&ref=science&oref=slogin

This kind of issue comes up in many alternative fuels, including my favorite, DME, which is infinitely more scalable than ethanol. Of course, DME is much safer than E85 if it leaks into the ground, since DME is totally non-toxic and relatively easy to remove from water. (You aerate the water in the DME case.)

[aquart]

1. Oops.

[phoebe]

2. or is this just another way to screw the people by holding back

the ethanol? After all, BP didn't give a flying .... about (remember the recently publicized news items?)their pipelines in Alaska that have been corroding for decades causing all sorts of environmental/health hazards...

Methinks UL is the good guy here.. just my 2 c's worth.

[NNadir]

3. I don't see any way in which "holding back" ethanol offers any advantage

in "screwing" people.

The entire ethanol game is, in my opinion, mostly about marketing and getting government funds for big business. If it weren't in the interests of companies like ADM to promote ethanol, the business would probably disappear in short order - unless, of course, ethanol is really economical and sensible.

I know that people want to believe that ethanol is about driving the oil companies out of business, but this is purely an absurd fantasy. If ethanol was that good people would be fighting for access to it, just as they fight for access to oil.