New research by the University of Minnesota has shown that using higher blends of ethanol (20%) blended with petrol does not cause damage or performance problems for standard petrol engines.

Over half the petrol already sold in the US is blended with 10% ethanol (E10). Higher blends have not been tried yet because there were some concerns that higher blends could cause engine damage and degrade the performance of a car – very high blends of ethanol (up to 85% - E85) will only work properly in engines which have been specially converted to run on ethanol.

Researchers took 40 pairs of common American cars and studied them for a year. The study showed that increasing the blend from E10 to E20 (which increases the ethanol blend from 10 to 20%) still provided an effective fuel across a wide range of tests.

The emissions for E20 compared with E10 are still being compared and the conclusions of the emissions tests are not yet known, and the fuel has not yet been recognised by the Environmental Protection Agency or Clean Air Act standards.

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