Vietnamese scientists say E5 usable for popular engines The Vietnamese scientists from the leading research institute have affirmed that E5, the biofuel made in Vietnam, can be used for the old-generation engines, the popular ones in Vietnam.    The Aerodynamic Institute under the Hanoi University of Technology and the PetroVietnam Institute’s Center for Technology Application and Transfer, have come to the conclusion that E5, or E10 and E20 will in no way affect the features of the currently popularly used engines in Vietnam. The conclusion has been made after the scientists made experiments on the engines with the biofuel made by the Vietnamese manufacturers. The affirmation by the scientists on the safety of the biofuel to the engines is believed to lift the people’s worry about the possible influences of the biofuel on their vehicles, which makes them keep away from the environment friendly biofuel. The reluctance has made the national program on biofuel development fail completely. Though E5 petrol has always been cheaper than A92, people still prefer A92 for fear that the biofuel may not be compatible to their engines. Even the automobile and motorbike manufacturers also gave the warning that they would not be responsible for the problems with the engines, if the vehicle users use E5 petrol. E5 is a mixture of ethanol E100 (5 percent) and 95 percent of normal petrol. In many countries in the world, vehicles have been using E85 petrol, which is the mixture of 85 percent of ethanol and 15 percent of normal petrol. However, the biofuel with the high proportion of ethanol can be used only to the engines which have been improved to get adapted to the new kind of fuel. E5 is better than normal petrol Scientists have said that since ethanol has the octane value higher than petrol, the E5 has the octane value higher than normal petrol, thus allowing increasing the detonation resistance capability. Thanks to its chemical composition, E5 is believed to help increase the intake air density and the amount of intake air into the engines. With a small volume of oxygen in the fuel, E5 allows to reduce the HC and CO emission. The only weak point of E5 is that ethanol has the calorific value lower than normal petrol (about 2.3 of normal petrol). However, scientists believe that the influences to the engines would be inconsiderable with the small proportion of 5 percent of ethanol. The experiments on automobile engine of Ford Laser Ghia 1.8 showed that the engine capacity and the fuel consumption level when using E5 both were improved with the capacity increasing by 3.31 percent and the fuel consumption decreasing by 5.18 percent. The improvement has been attributed to the higher oxygen concentration in E5 which helps the burning process go more effectively, especially when the vehicles are in high loads or full loads. No need to change engines The international research works have also pointed out that one would not have to change the manufacturing materials of the engines when using the biofuel with less than 5 percent of ethanol. The changes with the carburetors would be needed only when using the biofuel with more than 5 percent of ethanol. The Vietnamese scientists have affirmed that E5 is completely capable for the prevailing engines in Vietnam while no need to make changes in the structure or material materials. Meanwhile, E5 would help improve the engine capacity, and especially, helps reduce the emissions. Source: Lao Dong