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It is time to stop making ethanol from corn. Let’s see which candidate is willing to take on that corruption.

Making ethyl alcohol from corn is a ridiculous waste of food and is nothing less than a government subsidy for agribusiness, an enormous waste of water, which results in a poor excuse for an engine fuel (all petroleum products have an energy content of 18,000 BTU per pound, alcohol has 12,000 BTU per pound). Petroleum products have good film strength and are lubricious which reduces friction on moving parts. Alcohols have poor film strength and tend to increase wear rates on moving parts. Alcohols chemically attack certain commonly used elastomers (gaskets and seals).

When ethyl alcohol is produced by agribusiness they use the same methods that the good old boys down in the deep south use to produce "grandpa's sipping whiskey". They ferment a mash of corn and distill off the resultant alcohol leaving the spent mash that requires disposal. That is ignoring a much more efficient method using a chemical synthesis developed in the 1930's by Shell oil.

Natural gas is a mixture of several gasses (methane, ethane, ethylene, helium, carbon dioxide). Before the NG is pumped into the distribution system it is liquefied and then processed through fractional distalion to separate the mixture into methane which is sold as NG and several other gasses which are used as feedstock for producing various plastics. Shell developed a process using ethylene, steam, and a catalyst to synthesize ethanol in one step. The only impact results from diverting some of the ethylene that would ordinarily be used to produce polyethylene (Most of which winds up in the land fills anyway).

That begs the question do we really want to produce more crappy engine fuel? If we must, we really should use the most efficient method and stop pouring tax dollars into a method that destroys food and unnecessarily drives up food prices.

Regards,
GtG

PS BSME W/ AAS in internal combustion engine design & minor in fuels and lubricants