Higher ethanol blends support the transition to a low-carbon future COmmEnTAry Case study A 2016 Ford F150 was provided to Oak Ridge National Laboratory by the Missouri Corn Growers Association for a demonstration experiment. The truck was equipped from the factory with the 3.5-L turbocharged, direct-injection V6 engine. ORNL engineers tested the truck with regular E10 and a high-octane E25 such as would be required by the Next Generation Fuels Act, to demonstrate the fuel economy and acceleration performance advantages of highoctane, low-carbon fuels. The work was supported by National Corn Growers Association and Illinois Corn Marketing Board. The F150's V6 engine was removed after baseline testing and the factory 10:1 compression ratio pistons were replaced with 12.2:1 compression ratio pistons provided by MAHLE Powertrain. With highcompression pistons and highoctane E25, the truck achieved 5-6% improvement in efficiency in all driving conditions compared to the E10 baseline tests, and 0.8 second faster acceleration in a wide-open throttle test. Results are detailed in a report available at https://info.ornl.gov/ sites/publications/Files/ Pub109556.pdf. n UPDATE February 2023 5 TOP: The Ford F150 3.5-liter V6 engine. MIDDLE: Factory and high-compression pistons used in the Ford engine. LEFT: Dynamometer testing of the Ford F150 at OrNL. PHOTOS: Oak Ridge National Laboratoryhttps://info.ornl.gov/sites/publications/Files/Pub109556.pdf https://info.ornl.gov/sites/publications/Files/Pub109556.pdf https://info.ornl.gov/sites/publications/Files/Pub109556.pdf