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Ethanol
BobJudy
Member Posts: 6,634 ✭✭✭✭
Not only is it bad for engines and reduces MPG, it is also worse for the environment;
Just another example of the people making the decisions not thinking of all the ramifications of those decisions. I have always avoided ethanol gas when possible, but who knew that I was being more green by burning alcohol free gas? Bob
Comments
Imagine that. I tried one tank of that stuff in my F250. Less power, way less mpg
Stop planting the fields and "retire" them. (What is a "retired field" anyway?)
Build more housing developments with McMansions "in the country".
Buy more vehicles to "drive to the city for work".
Make the vehicles electric to reduce the need for gasoline.
Build windmills and solar farms in the "retired fields" to make the electricity for the vehicles.
Buy Fritos Corn Chips for supper at the grocery store where all the food comes from anyway. Why do you need farms, if you can just get your groceries at the store?
Stop "subsidizing" farmers and use that money to buy crack pipes.
Yep, I was raised on the farm. City folks sure have funny ideas.
alcohol has fewer BTU's of heat than gasoline, thus poorer performance in an engine. simple as that.
OK, you guys have listed all the downside issues of ethanol but here's the single thing that offsets all your comments (plus any others that may appear): ethanol produced from corn is immanently renewable. Fossil fuels are NOT.
The premise of electric vehicles is an absolute and irrefutable farce in 90% of the US. Windmills are an ugly smudge on the land and require constant maintenance. Solar is only good 1/2 the time.
While I agree with the premise of your post, my post was to point out the irony of the greenies touting the benefits of ethanol without understanding the actual results of its use and production. Corn production was a boon for farmers but had the opposite environmental impact than was forecasted. It is kind of like the knee jerk reaction of shutting down the country due to covid and then finding out it didn't help and ruined the economy. Electric vehicles that our grid can't support and have batteries that we can't efficiently recycle. Windmills and solar panels that are inefficient and not dependable that we also can't recycle efficiently. Stopping oil and gas leases on Fed lands and then wonder and complain why gas prices are going through the roof. Poor planning without considering all of the ramifications leads to the peril of unintended consequences. Bob
Ethanol (Alcohol) has much less power per unit than octane (Gasoline).
To put in the vernacular: Ethanol is the equivalent to beer while Octane is the equivalent to 150 proof vodka per equal volume. Ethanol is very weak in comparison. Octane can be explosive.
Long ago....IIRC....it was put forth that it takes MORE than one gallon of gasoline(energy wise).....to produce one gallon of ethanol.
Once again.....The First Law Of Thermodynamics.....comes to mind.
But then.....there are politicians......and MONEY!!
My pathetic $0.02.
We've had many discussions about corn gas here. It's no question that clear gas is greener. But gov't just HAD to "do something". We need to stop letting them do things.
And fiery auto crashes
Some will die in hot pursuit
While sifting through my ashes
Some will fall in love with life
And drink it from a fountain
That is pouring like an avalanche
Coming down the mountain
So is that where the corn monkeys came from?
One can make all the corn gas they want... as long as they drink it and don't sell it.
I have made a few dollars with ethanol.People leave it in the small engines in the off season=crudded fuel systems that they bring to me to repair or throw it away and go buy a new one.
Grew up on a grain farm in Texas Panhandle. Raised a lot of corn that was chopped into silage and fed to the cattle in a big feedlot.
My take on corn to fuel is that it's a good idea ONLY for corn that is somehow not suitable for marketing otherwise -- too wet, etc. Ethanol gives the farmer an additional market for low-grade corn but without govt. subsidies the whole house of cards would collapse.
If all this renewal Fuel is so great, alcohol gas and bio diesel, then why don’t farmers us it? Don’t get me wrong, I have lived in the country over 50 years and have many friends that are farmer, bottom line they can grow it and sell it but don’t want to use it. Tractors are very expensive these days.
Just read that when Al Gore ran for president he claimed to have 1.5 million dollars. His net worth today is estimated at 300 million. Theirs a tremendous amount of money to be made "saving the planet"
"Ethanol gives the farmer an additional market for low-grade corn but without govt. subsidies the whole house of cards would collapse."
Please clarify which 'house of cards' you refer to. American farmers feed the World and you say it's a 'house of cards'???????
"If all this renewal Fuel is so great, alcohol gas and bio diesel, then why don’t farmers us it?"
Well, several things come to mind: First, the conditions of farm machinery use are vastly different than operating conditions of industrial and road use machinery. Bio-diesel can be severely problematic in cold weather making it unsatisfactory for year round farm use. In addition, many farm machines are decades old and fuel injection systems not compatible or adaptable to the requirements of bio-diesel use . Gasohol has it's own set of problems when used in older engines and is both unstable for long term storage and unsuitable for older engines.