Posted on 06/28/2006 6:43:54 PM PDT by saganite
SAN FRANCISCO (Business 2.0 Magazine) -- Everywhere you look these days, tech and business world luminaries - like Richard Branson, Paul Allen, Steve Case, Vinod Khosla, John Doerr, and Bill Gates - are laying down big bets on ethanol, a substitute for gasoline that's already finding its way into pumps.
The price of the stuff has shot up 65 percent since May from $2.65 a gallon to $4.50, largely thanks to the oil companies who have started to put small quantities of it in our gas as a clean-air additive (most cars can handle a blend of up to 10 percent ethanol in their tanks).
That means the fuel for our cars is now about 60 cents a gallon more expensive than it would be if it were just gas, according to analysts at JPMorgan. As drivers, ethanol is lightening our wallets; as investors, though, it could well fatten them.
But before you jump on the ethanol bandwagon, consider this: There is an ethanol format war looming that will make the Blu-Ray vs. HD-DVD tussle look like a schoolyard spat. If you're making an investment for the long term, you have to ask yourself whether the future's dominant fuel is going to come from corn, sugar, rape seed, or switchgrass - or if it's going to be synthesized from scratch.
The winner is going to be whoever can make ethanol in mass quantities for as little money per gallon as possible - a tall order, no matter how you go about it.
(Excerpt) Read more at money.cnn.com ...
Ethanol absorbs and mixes with water readily, thus condensation is an enemy, pipelines always have condensation issues.
A 10% mix should provide approx 5% drop in your miles per gallon over straight regular unleaded.
The near future is BioDiesel from Algae.
(((Shaking head)))
Once again, the clearly better option is a semi-secret.
I looked up Butanol, and am aghast that this is the first I have heard of it.
Still not ready to run my car on it strait, but would be interested in what it can, or can not, do for my 100+ octane requirements.
Being an alcohol, I am thinking it might work best in a supercharged engine.
Start making it from trash plants instead of FOOD, and I will be an enthusiastic backer.
I check my MPG ..the correct way..and found no difference in my vehicles. Some ethanol is more than welcome in the winter when you have daytime highs of 32F for 3 months out of the year. And recently due to Fed mandates, we only have 'summer blend' ethanol-unleaded as well.
It smells like vomit.
Butanol has strange sickening smell to it. Mix it with sulfur and it smells just like a dead skunk. Butanol is used in the manufacture of noxious smells, such as for natural gas which otherwise has no odor.
Some years ago, a certain night cleaning woman was using the hand lotion of a female co-worker. We decided to play a trick on her. We put a bunch of butyric acid in it. We figured she would put this vomit lotion on her hands and never 'borrow' it again. But the lotion killed the smell. Even in huge amounts, no smell. So, if it ever becomes a problem, we just add a unit on the cars that squirts hand lotion into the exhaust!
Now, Hawaii has some of the most expensive gas in the nation, since it's all imported.
What an opportunity for an economical alternative fuel! The demand is there, you have available farm land nearby. The climate is perfect and I'm sure there are still people there who know how to grow sugar cane. All that's needed is the distillery and a place to blend it with imported gasoline.
This should be an ethanol success story - why isn't it?
"I'll be in Iowa, Illinois and Indiana all next week so I'll be seeing a lot of corn."
Bring some product from your brewery and I'll trade you for some Iowa sweetcorn when you come through!
"This should be an ethanol success story - why isn't it?"
I take this as a reading comprehensive quiz:
1. Ethanol takes more energy to clean up than it puts out
2. Now, Hawaii has some of the most expensive gas in the nation, since it's all imported.
3. Government subsidies are too low based on the increases in the cost of energy
No offense but ethanol and petrol Gasoline are not 1 for 1 interms of energy potential in a canventional gas engine, it typically requires 25-40% more of ethanol to produce the same output. The company I work for is involved in engine testing and sensor systems. The engineers at our place have been playing with all kinds of fuels and fuel systems for years. You can tweek an engine to convert more ethanol energy but they require more maintainence due to lubrication issues with alcohol.
Not mentioned in the cross-country test, or experiment results.
Combustion at high temperature and pressure killing the smell?
Any harder to deal with than current fuel emissions
Probably not.
Ethanol price were higher today because corn futures were up.
Understood regarding energy output & cost to produce. No choice here in my designated 'dirty' Lower Peninsula Southeast section of Michigan. All stations must sell a minimum of 5% mix.
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.