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I refer you once again to http://zfacts.com/p/60.html
ALL THE STATISTICS ON THIS WEB SITE USES PRO-ETHANOL NUMBERS!
(a lot of good reading on http://zfacts.com)
The energy of ethanol relative to gasoline
A. 76,000 BTU = Energy in a gallon of ethanol
B. 116,090 BTU = Energy in a gallon of gasoline
C. .655 = 2/3 = GGE of energy in a gallon of ethanol. A / B.
D. 1.53 = Gallons of ethanol with the energy of
1 gallon of gasoline. D = B / A.
So no matter how you change the engine to run on ethanol it "ain't" every going to get near the mileage of gasoline. Basic laws of physics are hard to break. With the high octane you could raise the compression to get faster acceleration, but miles per gallon can never be the same. At best by 2017 ethanol will only replace 3.4% of the gasoline used. Not an impressivve number considering the taxpayer's subsidy.
Similarly, as a comparison, pine logs will burn faster and more violently, but will not give off the heat of the same volume of oak.
As noted else where in this posting people like to present the military asteful spending in the Mideast as fighting to protect the oil supply. But really it is just for corporate domination. If it makes you feel good that that can be tallied against gasoline, fine. Each to their own mindset.
I agree that Hydrogen is a joke. The only cost effective source for hydrogen is the cracking of anhydrous ammonia, which if made from natural gas or you could crack it straight from the natural gas, but then that still is petrol based.
Plug-in hybrids could do a lot to offset demand, sourced from wind power and solar panel. Ethanol needs a lot of petrol, nuclear, and coal input to end up as a fuel. Yes, there are not a lot of diesel vehicles in the US. Things do change and people are now demanding the diesel, because of the mileage. Raising CAFE standards would also do a great deal to reduce our dependence.
We could use mass transit which was widespread in the US early in the 1900s, but thanks to the fine folks at General Motors most of this was destroyed. You may recall that they also were the promoters of leaded gas. Now the US has background lead levels 10,000 times what it would be in nature.
If you like ethanol whether to drink or use in your vehicle, it is fine with me. Just know the facts about the product.
posted by 12.47.11...
, Wed, 9 May 2007 10:07:00
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