Posted on 06/24/2005 2:18:04 PM PDT by mikemikemikecubed
A lot of times, trying to get something done here in Washington can get pretty frustrating. There's bitter partisanship, petty politics, and a general atmosphere that isn't always conducive to passing legislation that people actually care about.
But I'm happy to report that today wasn't one of those days.
Today, the Senate passed my proposal, which will be included in the transportation bill, that would make it easier for people to fill their cars with a cheaper alternative to gasoline.
Now, I know most of you are as tired as I am of pulling into a gas station and seeing that the prices are even higher than they were the last time you filled up. It's $2.19, then it's $2.24, then it's $2.35, and up and up. When will it stop? As long as we're dependent on oil from the Middle East, we don't know.
That's why we need to stop just talking about energy independence and actually do something about it.
If someone told you that you could fill your cars and trucks with fuel that's 50 cents cheaper than current gas prices, you'd jump at the chance. But what a lot of people don't know is that this option is already out there. It's called E-85, and it's a fuel made of 85% ethanol and 15% gasoline. It's cleaner than gasoline, it's cheaper, and most importantly, it reduces our dependence on oil from the Middle East. In fact, the Indianapolis 500 thought it was such a good alternative that pretty soon, their entire fleet will run on E-85.
Right now, there are millions of cars and trucks that can run on E-85. You might even have one yourself. They're known as "flexible fuel vehicles," and the auto industry is turning out hundreds of thousands of them every year.
Of course, the reason you're not seeing more cars run on E-85 is that we've got a severe shortage of E-85 fuel stations. While there are more than 180,000 gas stations all over America, only about 400 offer E-85.
This is where my proposal comes in. It's going to cost stations to install E-85 pumps, so we thought we'd give them a tax credit that would encourage them to do so. As more and more stations realize how popular this cheap alternative to gas is becoming, more will utilize this tax credit and install their own pumps.
Fuel systems have to be engineered to accept a high ethanol content, but once modified, internal-combustion engines run on ethanol-gasoline mix quite well.
The objection is exactly the same as it has always been to ethanol as fuel - not economically feasible, if the cost of growing the feedstock crops, harvesting, malting, and distilling the alcohol from the mash is factored in. The portion of the fuel that is ethanol is not taxes as is the refined hydrocarbon portion.
It is possible to make ethanol from a fraction of natural gas, ethene, but ethene makes up only a small portion of the components of natural gas. Natural gas is mostly methane, which itself is a much better fuel for most internal combustion engines. It is just a bear to fuel up with the stuff, as it requires pressurized containers for storage.
My beef is with the crowd that claims it takes more energy to produce ethanol than the ethanol contains, which would be true if the only product in the processing created was the ethanol - but that is not the case. There are several products created in the process - and for someone to assign all the energy production costs to just one product is a farce.
I can't take anything seriously Obama.
will a gallon of ethanol produce the same amount of energy as a gallon of gasoline?
This is ethanol. It costs a LOT more that gasoline. The costs are hidden in the subsidies to farmers are processors. Don't be fooled. Your tax dollars at work.
The government should subsidise that thar still in my garage instead of sendin' them danged revenuers with their axes...that still is fer makin' fuel fer my car, I swear. :-)
Also, the esteemed junior Senator from Illinois elides another important point; that ethanol is ''cheaper'' than motor gasoline ONLY because it is subsidised by your and my tax dollars. Ethanol is also much, much harder to distribute; fapp, you can't pipe it (explanation on request), so you must either barge it or truck it w/in the continental U.S. Cha-ching!
From an energy standpoint, ethanol is also inferior to motor gasoline. I haven't time to do the conversions just now, but the 2 carbons in ethanol will produce far less motive power in an automobile engine than the average 7 carbons found in a molecule of motor gasoline. On a carbon atoms per unit volume of fuel basis, the power generation differential isn't 3.5 because the ethanol molecule occupies less space than the gasoline molecule, but it is still about 2 or 1.9 (long time since I've looked at this, sorry for the imprecision).
Bottom line, here? Osama Obama is just shilling for ADM, everyone's favourite ethanol producer, which is headquartered in **which** state?
Hand the man a see-gar, that's right. Illinois.
I95
"...it requires pressurized containers for storage."
Kegs? :-)
uch more eloquent than what I would have said...and spot on, effing spot on!
Er, that would be ''Much'', not ''uch''. Mandatory typo of the day, grr, mutter...
For a look at the Energy Balance of ethanol - look here:
http://www.ethanol.org/documents/04CFDC-002_EnergyBalanceF.pdf
But by all means, let's find objections to ethanol. It's far less attractive a fuel than oil. You know, that filthy black junk that keeps us entangled in the Mideast, makes us dependent on a bunch of former Bedouins, and puts us at the mercy of every two-bit mullah who can rub two Korans together?
Exactly. Lets talk about the hidden cost of being tied to foreign oil. Especially the Mideast.
Bingo. And we don't even want to throw Bio-Diesel into the fray.
Any contaminants in your current fuel system (gas tank/lines) will be disolved and flow through the system...be prepared to change out multiple fuel filters in a short period of time .
Some electric fuel pumps do not get along with alcohol and burn up.
You will need to set your vehicle up for alcohol use.
Not true. There have been unbiased independent and comprehensive energy studies done for ethanol. They usually give a total system net energy balance of around 1.25. In other words, you get a 25% gain in energy for the energy used to produce ethanol. Check out the study from the Governors Ethanol Coalition (which may be a puppet of Big Corn, but is hardly a puppet of Big Oil):
http://www.ethanol-gec.org/corn_eth.htm
However, there are other considerations to take into account when considering ethanol as a fuel. First off, look at the volumetric energy density of ethanol. It's about 6100 WattHours/Liter. Compare this to Gasoline with an energy density of 9700 WattHours/Liter, and Diesel at about 11000 WattHours/Liter. If you fill your car with an 85% mixture of ethanol and gasoline, you can expect at least a 32% reduction in mileage (or more if your car has trouble burning ethanol) simply because the reduced energy in the fuel.
Gasoline right now is somewhere around $2.25 a gallon. A 50¢ reduction in price for using E85 means about a 22% reduction in fuel price, but for a 32% reduction in mileage. With E85, you're still paying more per mile.
Also, I wonder if the 50¢ reduction in cost comes before, after, or without the taxpayer subsidy to the agribusinesses who grow the corn to make the ethanol.
Now don't get me wrong. I still think anything which reduces our dependence on foreign energy is a good idea. And for people who insist on buying gasoline engines, ethanol is one of the few available options. But for people willing to buy other types of vehicles, such as diesels, there are other, better home grown fuel options. They just don't have large agribusiness lobbies to promote them in D.C.
My 40 year old Minneapolis-Moline tractor, for instance, runs much better on E-85 than it did on unleaded gasoline.
Heat of combustion ethanol: 7.107 kcal/gm.
Heat of combustion heptane: 11.49 kcal/gm.
Handbook of Chemistry and Physics; 63rd edition
Big difference!
There is a way to gain a large measure of energy independence realtively quickly.
Mine the ocean floor for a substance known as Methane Hydrate. This is an amorphous, jelly-like substance, stable at temperatures below abour 40 degrees Fahrenheit, that just lies in the ooze of ocean depths, where the temperature never rises above about 38 degrees Fahrenheit. SEnd down a rig to crawl around on the bottom, sucking in this Methane Hydrate, and draw it back up to a collector on the surface, where it is allowed to warm and go through phase change, into saline water and methane gas. Cool and compress the methane to liquified form, and haul it in pressurized and insulated tankers to an LNG facility at the port.
And where does the energy come from to drive this operation? From some fraction of the recovered methane that is used to power the machinery to cool and compress the rest of the bulk of methane.
Excellent motor fuel. And long before we have hydrogen available as power for fuel cells, we shall have the methane replacing all other hydrocarbon fuels.
Methane makes an excellent building block, and by catalytic processes, can be built up into a sulfur-free form of gasoline or Diesel fuel, for the more traditional users of motor fuel. Both Diesel fuel and gasoline have the advantage of high energy density per gram of compound, and are easily handled by existing distribution systems.
We never have to buy another gallon of fuel from any overseas source, not even Venezuela. Or Mexico.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.