Comparative study on life cycle assessment of gasoline with methyl tertiary-butyl ether and ethanol as additives

China has proposed to use ethanol instead of methyl tert-butyl ether (MTBE) as a gasoline additive, with full compliance planned for 2020. At present, previous studies on gasoline additive focus almost exclusively on effects of fuel performance and engine, however, the environmental impact production and use of additives cannot be ignored. Herein, we use the life cycle assessment (LCA) method, the environmental effects of E10 (10% maize ethanol and 90% gasoline, v/v) and M10 (10% MTBE and 90% gasoline, v/v) were evaluated and compared. Quantifying the net environmental benefits of implementing this national policy from a life cycle perspective. The results showed that the environmental impact of E10 was 15.4% lower than that of M10. Thus, replacing MTBE with ethanol reduces the total environmental impact. However, there were some negative environmental impacts such as waste solids and water use. Finally, we propose further improvements to make E10 more environmentally friendly.