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Does anyone know what the relative cost of MTBE is vs. ethanol? One of the reasons ethanol is added to gasoline is to increase the octane rating. We used to use
by jschwartzi 12y ago
Does anyone know what the relative cost of MTBE is vs. ethanol? One of the reasons ethanol is added to gasoline is to increase the octane rating. We used to use MTBE instead. I'm curious if the argument against ethanol continues to bear out when considering alternative octane boosters.
- lutorm 12y agoWell, MTBE was phased out because of groundwater contamination. If you include cleanup costs, I doubt it would be cheaper than ethanol.
- Spooky23 12y agoDepends on how you define cost. MTBE infiltrates groundwater very easily, and cleaning up contaminated sites is ridiculously expensive.
- maxerickson 12y agoThis characterizes MTBE production costs: http://www.eia.gov/forecasts/steo/special/pdf/mtbecost.pdf http://www.eia.gov/forecasts/steo/special/pdf/mtbecost.pdf It uses oil and natural gas feedstocks, so goes up and down with them. I guess it is somewhat cheaper to produce than ethanol, something like 1/2 the cost when the various input costs make the comparison the worst, and similar at other times (this is just a ballpark guess, not based on any careful analysis).