Ethanol Policy Not Producing Desired Results

TAMU Times (Texas A&M University news release) ^ | March 7, 2012

[mylife]

I hate ethanol!
It links food prices to energy prices and it just plain sucks.
My yard machines have been in the shop for going on 3 weeks, gunked up with ethanol

I put stabil in them.
How is ethanol good?

[Constitutionalist Conservative]

AGW ping

[Obadiah]

Yet another colossal failed liberal scheme.

[AU72]

There are also the Iowa Caucuses pressuring every Presidential contender to suck up to King Corn.

[szweig]

Why are we burning our food?

[Mr. Lucky]

It's not your food unless you own it. If you want to raise corn and sell it for less than its fair market value, go for it.

The author fails to mention that the price of corn has dropped from 2011 highs of $8.50 per bushel to a near term price of $6.47 and to $5.88 for 2012 new crop delivery.

[Paine in the Neck]

The desired result was a gov't mandated market for corn. The cover story was that it would reduce gas prices by increasing the supply. The "unexpected" result was a market distortion that produced higher food prices.

[rellimpank]

—as I have bored posters with in the past, as I spend some time in corn country during both the planting and the harvesting of corn, I have awaited in vain for any evidence that growers of corn are converting from diesel to ethanol in any of the pertinent equipment-—

[Carry_Okie]

Finally, in regards to energy security, the authors claim that the benefits of ethanol policy are largely elusory.

Wouldn't that be "illusory"?

[DemforBush]

I've found a much better use for corn ethanol:

[thackney]

Don’t you know, food and fuel are supposed to be nearly free.

[Real Cynic No More]

... is causing unforeseen negative consequences for food prices while failing to live up to the desired gasoline results and other expectations....

Gee,.... yah think? This result was predicted by even those of us who aren't "energy specialists".

[txhurl]

Both. Elusory = elusive, illosory = deluded.

[El Gato]

Conversion from diesel to ethanol is not practical. Different types of engines. Although alcohol would probably work better than gasoline would. :)

Conversion of an Otto cycle (4 stroke), like a gasoline engine, to alcohol, is somewhat more practical, just a matter of timing mostly.

Now, you could convert a Diesel cycle, or Diesel, to burn soy bean oil, or other vegetable oil. Not much conversion required, maybe some extra filtering and possibly a fuel pump change in some brands of engine. I don't know if the farmers do any of that or not. The difference is that the veggie Diesel fuel is energy wise equivalent to the petro Diesel fuel, while alcohol doesn't have near the energy content of pure gasoline.

I know a couple of people who have burned veggie Diesel, and not commerical Bio-Diesel either, in their trucks. One guy had fuel pump issues, in a Dodge truck IIRC.

[El Gato]

To be clear, i don’t mean burn the soy or corn oil itself, but rather a Diesel fuel made from them. People have burned used oil from McDonalds. Makes the exhaust smell like French Fries. :)

[Excellence]

Elusory[ih-loo-siv]   elu·sive   /ɪˈlusɪv/ [ih-loo-siv] 1. eluding clear perception or complete mental grasp; hard to express or define: an elusive concept. 2. cleverly or skillfully evasive: a fish too elusive to catch.

In other words, the benefits are eluding them, they can't be found. Right word.

[arrdon]

Well, one thing; the small two-stroke engine just was not made to run on ethanol. At least, the fuel-system components are very succeptible to complete disintergration with only limited exposure to ethanol, and none of the additives prevent that, either. They may slow it but won’t stop it. Outboards that I have had did not suffer so much, but chain saws and weed eaters you have to dump the fuel out of and run ‘em dry, and still you get expensive damages in very short time. I hate ethanol. It is absolutely not necessary.

[Twinkie]

“Makes the exhaust smell like French Fries.:)”

YUMMY!

[rellimpank]

--I should have made it more clear that I meant from the ground up--

--as an aside to this, have a friend who sold equipment in Wisconsin for years. When calling on an ethanol plant, he commented that some of the product must be used in the distillation heating. Response was "hell no--this stuff is too expensive--we use natural gas"--