B 4.3. Is it true that the use of ethanol-gasoline blends increases NOx emissions?
The NOx (nitrogen oxides) emissions from a fleet of gasoline-fueled vehicles can increase slightly when using gasoline blends with up to 10 percent ethanol. The observed increase is usually around 1 percent, on average. Not only is that variation of little significance, it is also lower than that observed for vehicles that are converted for running on natural gas or equipped with diesel engines, the use of which has been promoted as environment-friendly in many countries, but the NOx emissions from which can be more 200 percent higher than those of equivalent vehicles running on gasoline.
