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Hybrid Vehicles Ethanol - E85 FlexFuel Is Ethanol good for the environment?
165 messages, Last post on Sep 24, 2008 at 5:25 AM
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Replying to: gagrice (Mar 31, 2006 8:39 am) What about the acreage needed? For corn I think it works out to be something like the entire land area of the US would need to be planted with corn to generate enough ethanol...is this figure better for switchgrass? |
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Replying to: snakeweasel (Mar 31, 2006 6:14 am) sounds like we would be spending much money upfront, interms of water and other resources...and then getting less mileage out of each gallon ? That does not sound like it is a real good solution. Almost like spending money to save money? I remember once using $3 of gas to save $2 for filling the whole tank of gas...stupid of me.... 
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Replying to: highender (Mar 31, 2006 5:24 pm)
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Replying to: gagrice (Mar 31, 2006 6:11 pm) Now you can pooh-pooh all day long about how they are only the 5th most populous country in the world and how nobody drives cars down there but that doesn't hold water. They've turned off the tap. They won't be competing with China and India for energy...they will be selling it to them (we can't truck ethanol easily here but BRAZIL can seas barge it?). I will agree with gagrice that more pumps need to get out to justify the purchase of an E85 vehicle. I will also agree that the way we are creating our fuel needs to be improved, expanded and updated. You cannot tell me we cannot do it. We've been aced by a country known for Rio, beaches, thongs and rainforests. While it hurts, it should be a heads-up to a country that can put men on the moon. It's just been too easy to import the liquid gold and too much work to grow it ourselves. Then again, the third world is always ready to sell to fat & lazy americans. Cheers, Boiler
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Replying to: boilermaker2 (Apr 01, 2006 2:53 pm) While it hurts, it should be a heads-up to a country that can put men on the moon. Sounds to me like the Brazilians have 4 things up on us....  
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Replying to: highender (Apr 01, 2006 3:05 pm) You've really got to admire the comments that make you fall off of the podium...laughing. Boiler
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Replying to: boilermaker2 (Apr 01, 2006 7:29 pm) I understand what you mean...if Brazil...bless their carnivale , can make wide spread usage of ethanol...then maybe we , the best and strongest nation in the world...can .....must .... try to do the same or better. I wish we can all have some nice transportation that is easily accessible and used renewable resources.... I'll try to walk more... 
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Replying to: boilermaker2 (Apr 01, 2006 2:53 pm) |
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Replying to: gagrice (Feb 07, 2005 6:09 pm) |
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Replying to: snakeweasel (Mar 27, 2006 12:06 pm) The biggest problem is that we can only make about 90 gallons of biodiesel fuel per acre of farmland from one growing season. Not very efficient, in my humble opinion!  A better solution is to grow old-laden algae in vertical tanks, fed by the exhaust of a nearby coal-fired or natural gas-fired powerplant. Just one acre of these vertical tanks could make 15,000 gallons of biodiesel fuel each time we harvest the algae, and we could harvest the algae maybe every three weeks! A 200-acre farm of these tanks of oil-laden algae harvested every three weeks could mean we could make several million gallons of biodiesel fuel per year just from this one plant alone, and you can imagine just how much biodiesel fuel we could setting up these tank farms in 50-200 acre sizes next to every coal-fired and natural gas-fired plant in the USA. We might produce enough biodiesel fuel so we can substantially cut the amount of crude oil needed to make diesel fuel, freeing up the crude oil for refining into other products (like way more gasoline). |
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