Mechanics see ethanol damaging small engines

In a study released this week, researchers at Purdue University in Indiana found that corn prices had risen to $4 a bushel, the highest in a decade, largely because of the higher prices farmers can demand from fuel producers.

“Three dollars was just because the price of oil went up and the market demanded more ethanol to substitute for gasoline,” said Wallace E. Tyner, co-director of Purdue’s Center for Global Trade Analysis.

David Summers, a biofuels researcher at Missouri University of Science and Technology in Rolla, said that while ethanol was cheaper to produce than pure gasoline because it is subsidized, vehicles may also get fewer miles to the gallon.

“It was the wonder fuel to get us out of trouble — and it won’t,” he said.

When you add in its tendency to damage some engines, many mechanics and green fuel advocates are asking whether ethanol is worth it.

“There is no massive PR machine working to point out the downsides of ethanol, like there is on the other side,” said Christa Westerberg, a lawyer in Stoughton, Wis., who has represented opponents of ethanol plants in Wisconsin.

Rick Kitchings, the mechanic in Georgia, said consumers simply should insist on pure gasoline for their small utility engines.

“Theoretically, avoid ethanol,” he said. “Avoid ethanol.”

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