ECU goes greener with ethanol, gasoline mixture

ECU goes greener with ethanol, gasoline mixture

The first delivery of ethanol was made to ECU on May 26.

The East Carolina University campus will be a bit greener this summer as it begins using ethanol in fuel to power its vehicles and other equipment.

The gasohol, or E10 mixture, contains 90 percent gasoline and 10 percent ethanol.

The replacement of part of each gallon with ethanol will result in a 10 percent reduction in petroleum used in university vehicles and equipment, officials said.

“We expect the transition to E-10 to be nearly seamless,” said George Harrell, senior associate vice chancellor for campus operations.

Harrell said the university uses about 107,000 gallons of regular gasoline per year so the change will result in a reduction of almost 11,000 gallons of petroleum per year. Other changes that are planned to further reduce petroleum usage include switching to remanufactured lubricating oil for university vehicles and switching the Student Transit System busses to Biodiesel.

Harrell said crops are grown in eastern North Carolina that can be used to produce the ethanol portion of the E-10 mix. A production facility is under construction in nearby Aurora.

The first delivery of E-10 was made May 26.