NREL is a national laboratory of the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, operated by the Alliance for Sustainable Energy, LLC.

NREL UL Fuel Dispensing Infrastructure 

Intermediate Blends Performance Testing

2011 Infrastructure 

Platform Review, 

Washington, D.C.

Kristi Moriarty, Wendy 

Clark

NREL

January 26-28, 2011

NREL/PR-7A30-50690

This presentation does not 

contain any proprietary, 

confidential, or otherwise 

restricted information
NATIONAL RENEWABLE ENERGY LABORATORY

Goal Statement

• Determine compatibility and safe performance of 

installed fuel dispensing infrastructure with E15

• NREL’s UL Fuel Dispensing Performance Testing Project 

applies to several key focus areas of OBP’s Infrastructure 

platform:

• Examine the impact of intermediate ethanol blends on 

infrastructure

• Identify safe and low-cost biofuels delivery infrastructure

• Determine materials compatibility through testing

• Facilitate development of infrastructure for RFS

• Meet major milestone of testing and characterizing 

infrastructure with E15

• This project meets OBP Programs mission of biofuels 

deployment support & programmatic goal of 

supporting the RFS

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Timeline, Budget, Barriers, & Partners

Project start date: October 2009

Project end date: November 2010

Percent complete: 100%

• Dt-B Codes, Standards, and Approvals for Use

• Dt-C Materials Compatibility 

• Dt-F Limited Understanding of Downstream Infrastructure 

Needs

• Mm-A. Level of Industry & Consumer Acceptance & 

Awareness

Total project funding

• DOE share: 100%

Funding for FY10: $500,000

Timeline

Budget

Barriers Addressed

Underwriters Laboratory

ORNL

Project Participants
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Project Overview

History

• Spring 2007 – DOE kicks off intermediate blends test program

• October 2007 – UL develops E85 Fuel Dispensing Test Protocol

• December 2007 – EISA sets RFS

Context

• Ethanol is a near-term solution for meeting RFS requirements 

• E10 is blended into 90% gasoline; blend wall approaching

• Fueling infrastructure intended for blends up to E10

• Limited vehicles and fueling infrastructure for E85

Objectives

• Determine compatibility and performance of installed fuel 

dispensing equipment with E15

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Approach

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• Testing protocol: UL Subject 87A-E25

• 15 week conditioning test at 60°C to simulate aging

• Performance tests for each equipment type (days to two weeks)

• The testing protocol states that the test end when a failure occurs; NREL 

modified the test to continue after failure in order to gather more data

• Testing fluid CE17A SAE J1681

• 83% ASTM Reference Fuel C (50% toluene; 50% isooctane) & 17% ethanol 

with the addition of water, salt, and acid 

• E17 selected rather than E25 certification fuel; E25 is toughest test fluid for 

this equipment type; E17 accounts for over blending

• Equipment Test List

• Identified best selling equipment overtime with assistance from PEI, API, 

Manufacturers, Distributors, and Volume Buyers

• Equipment tested represents 80% of marketplace

• No repetitions; one of each equipment make and model was tested; this is 

how UL handles listings; limited lab space

• Monthly status reports on progress; updated to weekly discussions after 

unexpected results during performance tests
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Equipment Tested

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Shear Valve

Submersible Turbine Pump
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Technical Accomplishments/ Progress/Results

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• Status-Results were published in November 2010

• Post-mortem and materials analysis on completed 

work continues

• Study results directly apply to OBP’s Infrastructure 

Program MYPP milestone of testing and 

characterization of infrastructure with E15 by FY11

• Results from NREL and ORNL studies highlight 

materials best suited for ethanol/gasoline blends

• This will lead to low cost solutions for introducing more 

biofuels into the marketplace 
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Technical Accomplishments/ Progress/Results 2

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• No clear trends were established; 68% of new equipment and 47% 

of used equipment passed

• Some equipment performed well: hoses & hose assemblies; shear 

valves; submersible turbine pump

• Some equipment performed poorly: dispenser meter assemblies; 

breakaways and nozzles

Equipment New-Pass Used-Pass Overall-Pass

Breakaways 2 of 5 1 of 4 3 of 9

Flow limiters 1 of 1 1 of 1

Hose/Hose Assemblies 8 of 9 4 of 6 12 of 15

Nozzles 3 of 6 1 of 4 4 of 10

Swivels* 3 of 4 3 of 5 6 of 9

Dispenser Meter/Manifold/Valve Assemblies 0 of 2 0 of 4 0 of 6

Shear Valves 3 of 3 3 of 3

Submersible Turbine Pumps 1 of 1 1 of 1

Pass includes fully compliant and inconclusive test results that showed no safety hazzard or leakage

*Includes swivels integral to hose assemblies
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Technical Accomplishments/ Progress/Results 3

9

• Most failures occurred during performance testing

• Metals performed well; no impacts observed

• Failures occurred in sealing materials:

• Gasoline ethanol blends cause gaskets to swell—this may impact 

performance over the life of the gasket; swelling beyond 20% is 

problematic

• More appropriate sealing materials and methods are expected to 

perform better

• Test fluid was extracted during the conditioning phase 

– Analysis found organic compounds in extracted fluids 

• Dispenser meter failures significant due to life and cost of 

dispensers (~15 years; ~$15,000)
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Relevance

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Meeting OBP Missions and Goals of contributing to volumetric 

targets in RFS & Meeting Infrastructure Milestone of E15 Testing

• The findings of this scoping study reveal additional work is needed to 

introduce E15 into the marketplace and meet RFS volumes

• The project identified potential issues with increasing ethanol content in 

installed fuel dispensing equipment; specifically, sealing materials & 

methods

• The project highlighted equipment that performed well and may be able 

to pass UL certification for E25 with minimal, low cost materials upgrades

• Results were communicated to manufacturers and related industries;

manufacturers are considering altering materials specs to move towards 

products compatible with ethanol/gasoline blends
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Benefits and Expected Outcomes

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• Study findings highlight areas for improved fuel dispensing 

products that will enable higher ethanol blends with low costs 

for modifications

• Manufacturers appreciate the research and dataset from this 

study

• DOE & National labs recently met with manufacturers to address 

solutions to outcomes of this study to move forward in 

deploying more biofuels

• Targeting specific equipment parts with low cost modifications 

for better performance

• Engineered materials compatible with ethanol/gasoline blends may 

cost five times more but may only add ~$500 to a dispenser 

(~$15,000) of a few dollars to hanging hardware equipment
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Summary

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Relevance

• RFS and impending blend wall necessitated a need to determine 

compatibility of existing fueling infrastructure with E15

Approach

• A proven test methodology and an approved test fluid were used to 

test performance of best selling new & used equipment 

Technical Accomplishments

• Study is complete highlighting areas for improvement in fuel 

dispensing equipment to accommodate E15

Success Factors and Challenges

• Identification of low cost changes to improve performance & significant 

industry participation

Technology Transfer and Future Work

• Retrofit kits; workshops with manufacturers; Analysis with ORNL & UL
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Additional Slides-Results Statistics

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Equipment

New Used Overall

breakaways 40% 25% 33%

flow limiter 100% -- 100%

Hoses 89% 67% 80%

Dispenser Meter/Manifold/Valve Assemblies 0% 0% 0%

nozzles 50% 25% 40%

shear valves 100% -- 100%

swivels 75% 60% 67%

STP 100% -- 100%

Statistics on Passing Results
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Additional Slides-Extracted Dispenser Test Fluids

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Additional Slides-Example of Failure

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Additional Slides-UL Conditioning Lab

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Publications and Presentations

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Reports

• “Dispensing Equipment Testing With Mid-Level Ethanol/Gasoline Test 

Fluid” NREL/SR-7A20-49187, November 2010

Presentations

• SAE Government Industry, January 2011

• API Industry Stakeholder Meeting, January 2011

• DOE, National Labs, Fuel Dispensing OEM Meeting, January 2011