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The Inconvenient Truth About Ethanol

921 messages,  Last post on Oct 07, 2009 at 10:53 AM

You are in the Ethanol - E85 FlexFuel Forum. Your Host is pf_flyer

What is this discussion about? Alternative Fuels


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#890 of 921
Re: A simple question [texases] by pf_flyer HOST
Jul 15, 2009 (2:32 pm)
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Replying to: texases (Jul 15, 2009 7:38 am)

Ignoring what it's made from, I don't see ethanol as a solution to anything regarding reducing dependence on oil. And the idea that adding more than 10% ethanol to gasoline is somehow going to make things better boggles the mind.
#891 of 921
The hallucinations continue by pf_flyer HOST
Aug 31, 2009 (2:59 am)
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Wowie zowie... deformed watermelons as a source for ethanol.
 
Just Eat It
 
Food isn't fuel
#892 of 921
Re: A simple question [pf_flyer] by kipk
Aug 31, 2009 (4:59 am)
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Replying to: pf_flyer (Jul 15, 2009 2:32 pm)

I agree!
 
Adding 10% ethanol = poorer mileage.
 
Add in all the equipment (using energy) to produce that ethanol and the net effect could be we actually burn more dino fuel.
#893 of 921
Re: A simple question [kipk] by pf_flyer HOST
Aug 31, 2009 (10:45 am)
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Replying to: kipk (Aug 31, 2009 4:59 am)

Given that ethanol HAS to be trucked around and can't be sent trough pipelines, I'm certain it's a net negative as far as reducing consumption of oil/gas is concerned.
#894 of 921
Re: A simple question [pf_flyer] by kipk
Sep 01, 2009 (4:18 am)
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Replying to: pf_flyer (Aug 31, 2009 10:45 am)

Yep!
 
Considering:
 
tractors tilling the ground and planting the seed
 
Power to irrigate the fields
 
Tractors harvesting the crop
 
transporting the crop by truck
 
energy to convert the crop into ethanol
 
trucking the ethanol to a facility to "mix" the ethanol with dino fuel
 
poorer mileage from the finished product
 
A lot of dino fuel is burned just to get 10% ready for our fuel tanks.
#895 of 921
Sorghum for Ethanol? by gagrice
Sep 01, 2009 (6:15 am)
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Forbes Magazine dated September 07, 2009
If the U.S. insists on getting motor fuel from crops, it should think about putting them closer to the equator.
 
Corn ethanol swallows tax subsidies, jacks up food prices and doesn't do much to reduce the world's carbon footprint. So what does one say about the newest contender in the biofuels industry, sweet sorghum? Perhaps the most compelling sales pitch that can be offered about it is this: It's no worse than the alternative.
 
Federal law mandates that by 2012 gasoline refiners use at least 7.5 billion gallons of renewable fuel a year. If agribusiness executive Vikram Shroff has his way, sorghum will get a significant share of this market. Shroff runs United Phosphorus, an Indian firm founded by his father that sells sorghum seeds, as well as fertilizers, pesticides and industrial chemicals. He says many American farmers looking for a piece of the biofuels market should try growing sorghum along with sugarcane on their land.
 
A sorghum-sugarcane mix, says Shroff, can yield double the ethanol per acre of land as corn, uses less fertilizer and doesn't raise food prices (not directly, anyway). Persuading farmers in the southern U.S. to give his fuel-producing plant a try would give his firm a nice boost but not have a huge impact.

 
How much will spend to save on foreign oil?
#896 of 921
Re: A simple question [pf_flyer] by gogogodzilla
Oct 01, 2009 (2:52 pm)
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Replying to: pf_flyer (Jul 14, 2009 3:46 pm)

What I don't understand is that if the only reason we're using ethanol is to rid ourselves of our dependence on foreign oil...
 
...then why aren't we building coal-gasification plants. Both the US and China have the world's largest supplies of coal. So if we convert it to gasoline, then we have rid ourselves of our dependence on foreign oil...
 
...saved the midwest aquifer, saved the Gulf of Mexico from the deadly algae plumes caused by the nitrogen-based fertilizer runoff coming out the Mississippi, reduced the chances of global famine, etc, etc, etc.
 
Well, I guess environmentalists would say that it's good for the earth to kill off the sealife in the Gulf of Mexico, plow under wildlands for corn, and starve the poorest people on earth.
 
Oh happy day!
#897 of 921
Re: A simple question [gogogodzilla] by kipk
Oct 03, 2009 (4:06 am)
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Replying to: gogogodzilla (Oct 01, 2009 2:52 pm)

>"What I don't understand is that if the only reason we're using ethanol is to rid ourselves of our dependence on foreign oil... "
 
During the 2nd world war, a great deal of Germany's war machinery ran on "Liquified Coal". The technology has been around for quite a while.
As you pointed out, we have plenty of it.
  
We have huge deposits of light crude under the north mid-western states. Supposably larger than several of the "Oil Producing" countries combined. Also huge deposits of Natural gas in this region.
 
Another huge deposit of crude and NG under ANWR.
 
Huge deposits of oil shale in the Rocky Mountains.
NOTE: FWIW, we get a lot of our oil from Canada. The main source of that oil is from OIL SHALE.
 
That $700 billion, we are sending out of the country every year could supply a lot of good jobs here. Also stimulate the economy in a big way. Why can't the unions see and understand that and back someone that would actually help them
 
Before he left office, President Bush lifted the Ban on California's offshore drilling. California is in serious financial trouble, and could probably drill their way out of debt. Yet they don't. WHY!
 
I believe there is something going on bigger than we understand. Something to do with the ONE WORLD ORDER.
 
President Obama promised the UAW that their jobs would return if he was elected, but they have not and most likely will not.
 
Oldsmobile division of GM went away. Then Pontiac, and Hummer, and now recently announced Saturn. How many UAW jobs has that cost? No telling what type of death grip the FEDS have on GM and Chrysler. "Cap and Trade" will punish companies and force many out of business or out of country and raise the cost of living as even more jobs go away.
 
In spite of all the promises that were made, It seems our government is setting this country up to fail. WHY?
 
If we are honest in our thinking, we will realize that 535 people are responsible for the mess this country is in. They are the members of the House of Representatives, the Senate and the US Supreme Court. Any President can do little without the support of those 535. The corruption and greed and entitlement mind set is running rampant. Every time the administration changes, the other side has all kind of good ideas of how things could be made better. WELL?
Why didn't they make them better when they were in control?
 
"WE THE PEOPLE" keep those 535 in office and on the bench. So we share a great deal of the blame. Just as many believe the UAW is responsible for the D3 failures, "We the People" have our share of greed also, contributing to the failure of this country.
 
Kip
#898 of 921
Re: A simple question [kipk] by berri
Oct 03, 2009 (11:44 am)
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Replying to: kipk (Oct 03, 2009 4:06 am)

My fear is that Wsashington ups the ethanol content in regualr gasoline to 15 or 20% as a payoff to the midwest agricultural lobby in exchange for cap and trade although ironically that will hurt the midwest and east the most. If ethanol is going to work its got to stop being a poltical game and dump expensive corn (including the collateral effects of upping the cost of food) and start using grasses and sugar cane like Brazil (but the sugar lobby will not allow that). As for cap and trade, if Warren Buffet says its a dumb idea, I'll take his opinion over 535 baffoons in the capitol.
#899 of 921
How Much Ethanol by oldfarmer50
Oct 03, 2009 (12:30 pm)
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I usually buy whatever brand of gas that's cheaper but recently something happened to change my mind.
 
When I bought the "no-name" brand I got 23mpg but when I bought a name brand (Mobil) I got 25mpg. Both stations have the sign that says "contains 10% ethanol". Someone suggested that the name brand had less ethanol and thus the milage was better.
 
Is there any way to find out if different brands of gas contain less than the permitted 10%?

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