Posted on 02/20/2006 8:32:49 PM PST by kellynla
(FORTUNE Magazine) - You probably don't know it, but the answer to America's gasoline addiction could be under the hood of your car. More than five million Tauruses, Explorers, Stratuses, Suburbans, and other vehicles are already equipped with engines that can run on an energy source that costs less than gasoline, produces almost none of the emissions that cause global warming, and comes from the Midwest, not the Middle East.
These lucky drivers need never pay for gasoline again--if only they could find this elusive fuel, called ethanol. Chemically, ethanol is identical to the grain alcohol you may have spiked the punch with in college. It also went into gasohol, that 1970s concoction that brings back memories of Jimmy Carter in a cardigan and outrageous subsidies from Washington. But while the chemistry is the same, the economics, technology, and politics of ethanol are profoundly different.
(Excerpt) Read more at money.cnn.com ...
All you need to do is re program the chip in the ECM.
Oh, I thought it was going to be about four wheel bicycles with extra seats.
You eat coal? How about grass? Algae? Just exactly what do you eat? The ground up cattle feed after the starch is removed. How about Bagass?
Please read more. You have been brainwashed.
Or propane. Or hydrogen. Or compressed air. Or flywheels. Or some other crackpot conversion that isn't succeeding in the market.
Hybrids are the best thing to come along yet for purposes of fuel efficiency and eventual emission-free, gasoline-free travel, yet nobody on TV seems to like them. Probably because--HORRORS!--the free market does!
NO WAY! They might be "debriefed from the years of propaganda from the oil cult they have swallowed over the years.It's useless to try to convert them. Ethanol threads have digressed into the same morass as the evo/ID threads. It's a religion to believe ethanol only comes from corn, it's too expensive, and you can't grow enough to make a difference. I've made ethanol for less than a quarter a gallon when gas was 75 cents a gallon. But they won't believe you if you show it to them. I think they are brain damaged. I've told people about making fuel from coal and reminded them about Hitler's fuel, and even sent them the websites so they could buy the setup and put it on their own property to make their own fuel, and they come back with "corn this" and "corn that". It's some kind of mental retardation or something. I'm thinking it could be subliminal messages from Exxon commercials.
80 proof will not burn in an engine, to my knowledge. 160 proof will, but that is a bare minimum if you have high compression pistons and a turbo. 80 proof is 40%. Not bad mixed with Coke, but won't run an engine.
BTW, A Richard wearing a dress? You were asking for an answer like that from a mechanic, of course unless you were from New Orleans.
Hawaii should then stop shrinking its sugar cane industry and expand it.
Hawaii used to be one of the biggest suppliers of sugar to the world. Perfect climate for growing it.
The cane could come from Haiti, Dom. Republic, several countries in Africa, or Central America. We don't have to grow everything here. It would, however, cut the OPEC legs out from under them.
Now we can have the obligatory, "We can't use all our land to grow corn", crap.
Don't forget, coal, and cellulose, like grass and wood chips also. We have over 200 years of coal right here. Good enough for the Hitler's war machine, good enough for a Chevy.
Not true! Not even for corn anymore.( for the last several years) Forget what you think you know and read!
It looks like others have already told you that 80 proof won't work in an automobile, so I won't pile on. From the article: It takes about 30% more ethanol than gasoline to drive a mile, and the stuff is more corrosive, but building a car that's E85-ready adds only about $200 to the cost.
Unless your car already gets 65 mpg, you won't get 50 mpg with pure ethanol, let alone 80 proof.
What it truly ironic regarding Brazils use of multi fuel engines is guess what two companies manufacture those engines primarily. GM and Ford, yep those two. Of course, Brazil did when we were asleep. To all those who pooh pooh ethanol, remember that this might be a step process. Ethanol replaces part of oil usage, then other alternatives come a bit later too. Its not an all or nothing equation. A family friend had construction equipment back in the sixties when I was a kid that ran on any kind of fuel, they are called multi fuel engines, they do exist.
"We" weren't all asleep; just ignored. Stunning, isn't it?
Biodeisel will be similar. We have been blessed with a great "Farm Show" on our local AM blowtorch. These guys have been doing "specials" during the evening hours when their signal reaches probably 10 states. They have done several segments on ethanol; last week was about biodiesel.
Truckers were calling in right and left (from the road...guys from all over the country) to say how excited they were about the performance of biodiesel. Willie Nelson has gotten quite a few people excited about the product.
Biodiesel will be produced using the best locally available source (in Iowa it will be soybeans; in other areas safflower, sunflower, or other oils).
Everyone keeps yammering about the "new" industries that will help keep American great. Well, here is an industry (biofuels) that can provide jobs, while allowing us to get rid of our dependence on oil (provided courtesy of our enemies). What's not to like?
an interesting biodiesel thread to complement this discussion -
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1580103/posts
"Ethanol from oat straw (not hay)"
If you had read that article a little more carefully, you would have seen that you can also use straw waste from wheat (which is far more abundant), rice, rye, barley. The article also pointed at the potential to use waste from sugar cane, and lumber mill waste. Hay is a whole grass which is used for animal feed. Straw is a waste produce that is often burned causing pollution.
Straw made into the old rectangular bales can also be used to build houses. At a straw bale building seminar we learned that California burns enough straw each year to build 45,000 3 bedroom houses. If you want to know more about building with bales, contact me.
Perhaps you can find some statistics on how much straw from all sources is produced in the US, not just oats.
Calculating 30% mare ethanol than gas.
Actually the figure for 21 gallons is 16.15, not 14.7. To calculate, add 30 to 100, divide 21 by 130, multiply by 100.
It will burn in the driver, not in the engine. Driver will become his own engine, so to speak.
I was writing "propelling the driver", not "propelling the car". 80 proof will not work in an automobile, nor is there any need for it to: it would work in the driver, and that's enough. The driver will become his own engine.
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