Blog | Better Fuel

Higher Octane

What does octane do? Compression & Octane Unless you drove high-performance engines, spending more on expensive high-octane gasoline used to be unnecessary. But in recent years, octane has made a comeback. Automakers are building smaller, higher-compression engines to reduce weight and meet more stringent fuel economy standards. *Compression, or pressure inside internal combustion engine cylinders, translates to thermal efficiency and work from a volume of fuel. Higher-octane fuels allow for optimization of performance and emissions in high-compression engines. We have two primary sources of octane. One is renewable ethyl alcohol (ethanol) derived from the bio-based materials like starch in field […]

Just the Facts.

Facts are pesky. They can disrupt opinions. As the saying goes, we’re all entitled to our own opinions, but we don’t get to have our own facts. We’d never expect to sway opinion in a few hundred word blog. At best, that’d be naïve. At worst, it doesn’t do justice to the technical disciplines involved, including agriculture, biochemistry, thermodynamics, economics, and lifecycle analysis. But before you form opinions of Unleaded 88 E15 — a biofuel blend containing 15% ethanol — consider a few “distilled” facts about ethyl alcohol (ethanol). Heck, why not try a tankful or two? We think you’ll […]

Expertise Matters

Hoon Ge is a respected Twin Cities chemical engineer with a decades-long career dedicated to fuels and fuel additives. His first stint was with Koch Petroleum (now Flint Hills Resources) of Rosemount after which he joined Schaeffer Manufacturing of St. Louis. Traveling extensively, he was called upon as a trouble-shooter whenever fuel quality concerns were suspected. In 2005 Hoon formed MEG Corp, a consulting company that assists clients on a wide range of issues from ultra-low sulfur diesel and biodiesel blending to alternative fuels and additives to training programs for service technicians, high school students, and corporate personnel. Seeking the […]

What Makes a Great Station?

When the gauge is on empty, where do you pull in for fuel? Is price the biggest factor in your decision? If you follow the Better Fuel Initiative, you know we trumpet the benefits of Unleaded 88 E15. It beats regular 87 octane on price while providing that midgrade octane rating! We know customer loyalty is often penny-deep in the retail fuel business, but what else is important to where you fill up? Location! Location! Location! We tend to want a station that’s on the way to work or near home. Location is also about convenient access in and out […]