Posted on 05/04/2008 4:53:59 PM PDT by Delacon
“A little bit of ethanol can raise the octane rating of gasoline allowing better spark timing which in turn allows the engine to use more of the gasoline’s energy.”
All I know is anytime I put an ethanol blend in my car it loses about 25% of its power.
E=mc2 is the simple equation that explains why so much energy is obtained from fission reactions. The sun burns from fusion reactions. Sorry if you think it is nonsense, but you can argue with Einstein.
Ethanol is also sun energy and can be produced on an annual basis. Hitler ran a good portion of his war machine on ethanol since oil was so short.
Yeah, it is always America’s fault!
I big F.U. to the Eurotrash Island Monkies penning the article.
(Ahem) I’d like to try a little of that ‘Iron Pipe’ popcorn some time.
Ethanol combustion results in a 20-30% energy gain. Average yield/acre in Midwest is about 400gallons/acre. Takes about 1/2 gallon of fuel to plant an acre for starters. After ethanol is fermented from the starch the high protein feed is left to feed livestock. Stop buying the middle east oil story.
“Hitler ran a good portion of his war machine on ethanol since oil was so short.”
Aw man the Godwin Law strikes early this thread.
So hitler used ethanol, look what happened to him.
‘Modern coal fired plants are very clean.”
True, you must work for the coal lobby.
I’d rather have American coal than Saudi oil, thats for sure.
Also, most of the German WW II effort ran not on ethanol but on synthetic oil, made from coal, and on coal directly. Its transport system was rail, locomotives burned coal. Its factories burned coal. Coal provided the heat, and the electric power (modestly supplemented by hydro). And coal made the synthetic oil to run the army's modest fleet of vehicles, mostly as diesels, with relatively low octanes. Av gas needed higher octanes and was fairly dependent on imports of Romanian crude, and a few hydrogenation plants for coal conversion.
I have no problem with viable options. I support whatever solution will benefit the nation. I also understand that high corn prices have put the squeeze on ethanol, but the INFRASTRUCTURE, costing billions is already in place. Subsidies have mostly gone away too.
‘Ethanol combustion results in a 20-30% energy gain. Average yield/acre in Midwest is about 400gallons/acre. Takes about 1/2 gallon of fuel to plant an acre for starters”
huh, It takes 1/2 a gallon to start a tractor. Then you have to plow, plant, fertilize, spray insecticide and herbacide, then harvest.
All of those products require fuel to produce and transport.
Gas has more energy than ethanol. That is why its been the preferred fuel. We have plenty of it but are too weak kneed to drill in our own back yard.
I don't know anything about your car of course, but some will have "knock sensors" that will adjust the spark timing to just shy of pinging. I used to drive a Mitsubishi that did and it got so much better millage and power on premium that it was cheaper to run on it.
If your car is running the same spark timing on ethanol blend that it did on regular parafin-based fuel then it would be running poorer because alcohol has less energy per volume than petroleum hydrocarbons.
“I don’t work for any lobby. But I’ve seen and visited them, one recently in Page Arizona for example. You can see a plume from a fair ways off, and there is a mild smokey smell, most one can say. “
I live about 10 miles from a coal plant. Can see the white smoke which I’m told is mostly steam. People living very closer complain of soot on their cars. Not sure how true that is though.
Modern plants are much better than the ones from 30 years ago. Thats why we don’t have the pollution we did in the 70s.
JasonC, you don’t have a clue about the ethanol market. That is the biggest BS yet posted by you. If ethanol subsidies were $1.45/gallon farmers would be growing corn in every state, even in green houses. What are the subsidies to the coal industry? Care to pull another wild figure out.
That is the largest joke on the Environmental-Nazis!
They are bulldozing tropical rain forests to make Ethanol!
Save the Earth, grow biofuels, Woo Hoo!
Chekhov or O'Henry could not have written greater irony!
‘Here the fellow is not invoking German WW II experience to attack something, he is therefore not accusing any opponent of anything, so Godwin does not (yet!) apply. “
Acht, details details
And then use the nuclear energy to manufacture Hydrogen for our cars.
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