Posted on 10/12/2007 3:35:08 PM PDT by neverdem
One of the most exciting things about ethanol is that it provides a painless transition from gasoline engines and distribution systems.
E85 flex-fuel vehicles can run on pure gasoline if necessary in the interim. They also are a cheap modification of existing engine technology.
Finding better sources of ethanol, and more efficient extraction processes, may seem to be a frightening leap of faith to many.
But don’t despair.
As Ray Kurzweil and others have noted, our historical scientific progress is not linear. It is exponential.
The implications are astounding, almost too great for most people to understand.
The 20th century, which saw the introduction of the airplane, rocket, computer, television and much more, was a very eventful 100 years to say the least.
But because we are advancing our science at an exponential, not linear, rate, we will achieve the equivalent of 100 years of 20th century scientific breakthroughs in just the first 10 years of the 21st century!
And in only a few more years beyond that, significant scientific development will double again. And so on.
In fact, Kurzweil believes that children born today will likely live forever. How? Because even a few years of extended lifespan will bring the equivalent of the entire 20th century in medical understanding and achievement to bear, leading to yet more extended lifespans. And so on.
Don’t bet against scientific progress - we simply have to get started.
http://peswiki.com/energy/Main_Page
Wherever you read that, the authors were wrong. Sugarcane only grows well in a very narrow southern band across Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida (the subtropical zone). There is NOT enough land area to "grow enough here in the US...for the whole country".
And FYI, I grew up in the "sugar country" of South Louisiana, so know whereof I speak.
Cellulosic ethanol shows great promise.
Switchgrass will grow like weed in all 48 states.
What would you be willing to do to defund the Middle East Islamofascists?
I thought so.
Let’s give ethanol the respect it deserves, believe in ourselves again, and let’s win this one for the Gipper!
Ye screaming gods!! Chemical engineers have known how to break that azeotrope for over a century. At least try to come up with a realistic objection.
From Wikipedia:
"The ethanol-water azeotrope can be broken by the addition of a small quantity of benzene or cyclohexane. Benzene, ethanol, and water form a ternary azeotrope with a boiling point of 64.9 °C. Since this azeotrope is more volatile than the ethanol-water azeotrope, it can be fractionally distilled out of the ethanol-water mixture, extracting essentially all of the water in the process. The bottoms from such a distillation is anhydrous ethanol, with several parts per million residual benzene."
Not true at all.
In fact many guys run water injectors on their race engines, farmers used water injectors on alcohol tractors to increase power as well, because the water vapor added extra 02 for extra power under load.
Besides, it isn't hard to "dry" distilled fuels. In fact many fuels such as bio diesel are "washed" with water, then dried.
Your regular crappy gasoline contains water. You use ethanol to absorb it and burn it, and to keep it from building up on the bottom of the tank when it pecipitates out. Ethanol is a good fuel for keeping your tank clean.
That is also the bad thing about ethanol. it WILL absorb water from the atmosphere, so you have to ensure you keep it capped.
“I support the ethanol initiative, but for reasons more of my own:”
Ethanol is for drinking. All other uses are wasteful, including the 9 reason listed by you.
Sugar beets are also much better for making ethanol than corn, and they will grow well practically anywhere in the midwest.
The cornbelt however, is where corn likes to grow, and the region can produce a lot of it. That is why development of ethanol plants is good for that area. It will give farmers a boost rather than sitting on truckloads of worthless corn they can’t make any money on.
Cute.
But ethanol is a serious opportunity to defund Islamofascists, relatively painlessly and seamlessly.
Let’s do it!
His "study" isn'tr supported by anyone else.
For the study, Jacobson used a sophisticated computer model to simulate air quality in the year 2020, when ethanol-fueled vehicles are expected to be widely available in the United States.
"The chemicals that come out of a tailpipe are affected by a variety of factors, including chemical reactions, temperatures, sunlight, clouds, wind and precipitation," he explained. "In addition, overall health effects depend on exposure to these airborne chemicals, which varies from region to region. Ours is the first ethanol study that takes into account population distribution and the complex environmental interactions."
In the experiment, Jacobson ran a series of computer tests simulating atmospheric conditions throughout the United States in 2020, with a special focus on Los Angeles. "Since Los Angeles has historically been the most polluted airshed in the U.S., the testbed for nearly all U.S. air pollution regulation and home to about 6 percent of the U.S. population, it is also ideal for a more detailed study," he wrote.
Jacobson programmed the computer to run air quality simulations comparing two future scenarios:
So, what we have here, is ethanol causes dangerous emissions that don't even have names yet. And this is what you post and claim as FACT?
Sheesh...
Are you related to Al Gore by any chance?
This whole circus is driving over a cliff. And I hope it does before we waste too much money.
Tell that to Brazil.
The country that achieved energy independence by creating an ethanol economy.
Read about it and get back to me.
Hamlet!
Ethanol is a pretty good fuel on it's own, a little expensive, but so is gas now, and getting even more expensive.
Just wait until the USD drops a little more, and another war hits the world. Then you'll be wishing your great gandpappy left you his recipe book for good "all purpose", and diagrams for that invisible still.
When the war starts, and nobody’s looking, I’m gonna harpoon me a whale and use my ole’ pappy’s recipe to fuel my SUV with whale oil!
ManBEARpig?
yeah, I bet there are lots of those swimming around in Arizona...
You'll be needing a diesel engine in your SUV to burn that stuff as well, so make sure you refine it well or you'll bugger up that rather expensive fuel injector pump.
I didn't imply they didn't, just that simple distillation from corn mash isn't good enough to use for motor vehicle fuel, and the cost of making the ethanol anhydrous needs to be considered.
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