Above ground fuel tanks and steel pipelines may be at risk of corrosion due to new fuel grade ethanol (FGE). Doctorate student Luke Jain has been investigating how fuel tanks corrode with new and ever more common ethanol-based automotive fuels. In Jain’s study, it was found that the ethanol in the new fuels is providing an environment where microbes can corrode the metal. Initially, it was thought that ethanol-gasoline fuels would circumvent the problem by locking up the ethanol in the gasoline. In the field, however, it has been noted that the ethanol will fall out of the gasoline and dissolve in any water that may be present in the storage tank. This mixture of ethanol and water provides an environment capable of producing microbes that “eat” the metal.