E10 Ethanol Blend Reduces Moped Exhaust Emissions

I recently ran across an interesting study from Denmark on the exhaust emissions from mopeds. Mopeds are evidently fairly common in Denmark so they were looking at ways to reduce harmful emissions from them.

The study was conducted by the Technical University of Denmark and measured how ethanol blended gasoline reduced the emissions of carbon monoxide, hydrocarbons, carbon dioxide, smoke and particulate matter. The results showed that all emissions were reduced with introduction of ethanol but the most striking change was in the levels of particulate matter. E10 reduced the amount of particulate matter by up to 75%.

Emission from a Moped Fuelled by Gasoline/Ethanol Mixtures

This study may not seem all that relevant since mopeds aren't all that popular in the United States but the engine in the moped tested is of the same basic type as found in many pieces of small hand held equipment such as string trimmers and chain saws. And since the users of these types of equipment are forced to breath the pollutants they emit, any product that reduces the amount of harmful pollutants emitted should be considered.

MTD Products Fuel Recommendations

MTD manufactures outdoor power equipment under many names including Cub Cadet, Cub Cadet Commercial, Cub Cadet Yanmar, Troy-Bilt, White Outdoor, Yard-Man, Yard Machines, Bolens, Arnold, GardenWay, MTD Pro and MTD Gold. In the support section of their site a question and answer section and one question deals with what type of gasoline should be used.

It is recommended that customers use unleaded gasoline in the 84-90 octane range and avoid using gasoline with more than 10% alcohol.

Source : MTD Products Website