Gasohol

Gasohol, a blend of unleaded gasoline and alcohol (ethanol or methanol), used in some countries to reduce the cost of gasoline as automobile fuel. Raw materials for methanol production are coal and organic wastes, especially waste-wood products, while ethanol may be distilled from grain, sugar crops, or almost any starchy plant. Although gasoline is produced from petroleum, a fossil fuel, gasohol can be derived in part from renewable sources (See Biofuel).

Alcohol was used interchangeably with gasoline in the first internal-combustion engines in the 1870s, and gasoline-alcohol blends have been used periodically in Europe when petroleum was in short supply. Two gasoline-alcohol blends, alcoline and agrol, were sold in the United States in the 1930s but were unable to compete successfully with low-cost gasoline. The oil shortages of the 1970s prompted a revival of interest in alcohol blends, an interest further increased in 1985 by the proposed banning of leaded gasoline by the end of the 1980s. Gasohol can usually be used without modifying the carburetor, ignition timing, or fuel lines of an automobile and provides a slightly higher octane than regular unleaded gasoline.