What is the shelf life of Alcohol? The way ethanol is used is to bump up the octane in gas. So if the ethanol evaporates how does that effect the octane in the stored gas? 3 months seems to be the number for stored ethanol gas. E10 can be used with little issue. The problem is the ***** hats in the gov are mandating E20. This will change the ethanol debate against ethanol when that is all you can run. Mercury could not get one of their engines to survive a load test with E20.