Among these benefits include an improvement in vehicle fuel efficiency in vehicles designed and dedicated to the use of high octane fuels (HOF) such as cars equipped with turbocharged engines. These improvements in efficiency, it said, range from 5 percent to 10 percent. Fuels like E25 to E40 are considered HOFs due to ethanol's high octane rating. For example, E30 has an octane rating of 95. 

Picture Caption : The Ecoboost 2014 Ford Fiesta was one of the vehicles tested for the report (image courtesy of Ford.com)

ONRL said dedicated HOF vehicles would have lower greenhouse gas emissions on a lifecycle basis due to a combination of improved vehicle efficiency and increased use of ethanol.

"Analysis of the HOF market and primary stakeholders reveals that the automotive OEMs (original equipment manufacturers), consumers, fuel retailers, and ethanol producers all stand to benefit to varying degrees as HOF increases its market share. 

"The results depend on the underlying assumptions; but HOF offers an opportunity for improved fuel economy, and these dedicated vehicles are likely to be appealing to consumers," the report said.

Moreover, it said existing flex-fuel vehicles on the road today would experience faster acceleration with HOFs like E25 to E40.

ONRL said the report was undertaken to explore the potential of HOFs to achieve the RFS and greenhouse gas emission goals. Besides ONRL, both the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and Argonne National Laboratory assisted in preparing the report. 

This isn't the first time the DOE has explored the benefits of fuels like E25 to E40. Last year, it said if all vehicles had high compression ratios and could use E40, petroleum usage per vehicle would reduce by 30 percent while annual greenhouse gas emissions would be up to 149 million metric tons. 

You can read ONRL's new report here.