Why not solar power? The sun shines strong in Arizona! Mike Garfias wrote: On May 9, 2008, at 3:39 AM, Robert N. Eaton wrote: > I, too, think ethanol is a remarkable fuel for racing. It burns cool, > it allows very high compression ratios, and it produces very high > specific outputs for a given capacity engine. > > BUT, it contains about one fourth as many calories as gasoline, pound > for pound. This means that to reach a certain power output, the engine > needs four times as much ethanol. One author I read stated that there > just isn't enough arable land in the world to support our energy habit > on an ethanol economy and still allow us to eat. > > Bob Eaton > Its more like 67% not 25% (23.5MJ/L vs 34.8MJ/L). You also make up for some of that with the efficiency boost from running higher compression. As a racing fuel goes, gasoline (specifically a racing formula high in toluene or xylene) is a better fuel than ethanol. In the turbocharged F1 days, they were running nearly straight toluene in order to run the massive boost levels that gave approximately 1000hp/ Liter. Toluene is 114 octane, vs ethanols 116, but has a higher energy density. Xylene has toluene's energy density combined with 117 octane. Also, a lot of the studies that show ethanol is bad thing are based on a corn derived ethanol. The process is inefficient (1 unit of energy in gives 1.34units out). Brazil uses sugar cane derived ethanol which gives 8 units for every one going in. The only reason we're doing it with corn is because of the corn lobby and its federal subsidies. If they can ever get cellulosic ethanol production to ramp, all the left overs from farming, cutting the lawn, your old veggies, etc could be used. Again, ethanol isn't a bad idea, its just being done stupidly. Which makes me suspect that it might be done this way to tighten up the global food supply to raise prices and keep the US in power as the "world leader". --------------------------------------------------- PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss@lists.plug.phoenix.az.us To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change your mail settings: http://lists.PLUG.phoenix.az.us/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss ------------------------ Keith Smith (520) 207-9877 PHP Programmer --------------------------------- Be a better friend, newshound, and know-it-all with Yahoo! Mobile. Try it now.