Citgo, GM Blame Ethanol for Fouled Injectors

MILWAUKEE -- General Motors Corp. and Citgo Petroleum Corp. are privately pointing fingers at ethanol producers as they wrap up a months-long investigation into what may have fouled fuel injectors for hundreds of motorists around Milwaukee, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported GM service managers as saying.

According to the report, ethanol producers said they were not aware they were being blamed and defended their refining process and products as meeting the "most rigid fuel standards in the United States."

GM service managers from dealerships across Milwaukee said they were told by a high-level company engineer at a managers' meeting March 17 that sulfuric acid residue from ethanol tanks led to more than 700 complaints of clogged fuel injectors beginning in August. Sulfuric acid is used in processing ethanol for blending in Milwaukee-area fuel as required by the federal Clean Air Act.

In August, motorists and mechanics around Milwaukee began reporting a surge in plugged fuel injectors and more than 300 drivers complained to the Journal Sentinel in an online survey. According to the data, roughly 75 percent of the problems occurred in GM vehicles.

The Department of Commerce, which regulates petroleum, collected more than 700 complaints but could not trace the source of the problem and handed the probe to the Environmental Protection Agency, which said it would not have any information to release publicly for at least another couple of weeks.

Mark Czerwinski, a service manager at a Chevrolet dealership in Cedarburg, Wis., said officials from Citgo came to his shop, corroborated the finding of the residue and explained that they were working with ethanol producers to have the parts per million of such residue reduced from eight or nine parts to one part.

Citgo officials did not respond to the Journal Sentinel's requests for an interview.

GM corporate executives said they were not ready to proclaim the problem solved.

"We have not determined a root cause," Tom Henderson, a GM spokesman, said. "GM is continuing to investigate sulfate salts to understand the impact on fuel injectors in the Milwaukee area."

Henderson said the company was not aware of the presence of sulfuric acid residue in the fuel.

John Malchine, president of the Wisconsin Ethanol Association, said ethanol producers are trying to reduce the amount of sulfuric acid residue left in their final products but that the move is independent of any problem with fuel injectors or pressure from oil companies.

"We're constantly working toward doing a better job," Malchine said. "It's an ongoing, everyday effort."

Malchine said ethanol is in no way to blame for injector problems. "Show me the science," he said. "They always have to point a finger, but they're showing us no science."

Ethanol from Malchine's ethanol plant, Badger State Ethanol in Monroe, Wis., is tested every two hours, 24 hours a day, he said.

"Regulation and quality control of ethanol is more rigid than gasoline," he said.

Legislators are considering a proposal to mandate that ethanol be blended into fuel statewide.