I have noticed that E85 fuel is making inroads into our country, and the more I read up on it the more I like it! 104 RON, lower CO2 and lower cylinder temperatures due to the cooling effect of ethanol!!
Using ethanol to boost ocatane is nothing new however, as a company called Kool motor was using it in the 1920's. It was thanks to GM that we ended up with Tetraethyl lead in our petrol, after buying the rights to this substance they were very keen to peddle it, despite the fact that they knew it was poisonous at the end of the 19th century :wtf:
The Genral wanted to make this stuff work, and had to develop scavangers to take it out of the engine and out the exhaust, because it was wrecking the test bed engines that they tried this fuel on, so hey presto a cheap octane booster and people breathing lead :wtf:
Anyway, with its very high octane rating and it's cooling effect tuners should be able to run higher compression, and higher boost levels without knock, and with careful study reduce the overall size of engine cooling systems as water is heavy stuff, yet another advanage. The bad points of E85 is that it is less energy dense than petrol, and it is a more corrosive fuel too.
This means that you may need bigger injectors and an uprated pump, and a switchable map for the ECU.
Here's another thought for you - a 2.2 tonne Bently GT supersport running E85 only emits the equivelent of 120g CO2 per km, which is a good thing for the enviroment, and it spoils a lot of arguments against car use and the demonisation of petrol heads and motorists by governments, and their determination to make life as unpleasant as possible for the motorist.
This type of fuel is far more viable than hydrogen, as it can be distibuted through an existing infrastucture, and hydrogen tends to be made from natural gas anyway.