House Passes PRO IP Bill

[Robert N. Eaton]

fouldragon at aol.com wrote:
> What I don't get about ethanol is, if it's about a 
> domestically-produced fuel/fuel independence thing, why go E85?
>
>  From what I hear, in Brazil, a lot of the cars can run on 100% ethanol, 
> so if we get a miracle that lets us crank up ethanol production without 
> starving the world, we can cut the petroleum industry much more out of 
> the loop.
>
> Of course, at the end of the day, individual transportation, no matter 
> what its form, is always inefficient.  Give me a 2,000 horsepower 
> locomotive pulling a commuter train with 500 passengers, over 500 
> individual cars.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Mike Garfias <mike at garfias.org>
> To: Main PLUG discussion list <plug-discuss at lists.plug.phoenix.az.us>
> Sent: Wed, 7 May 2008 6:19 pm
> Subject: Re: House Passes PRO IP Bill
>
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> On May 7, 2008, at 5:18 PM, Craig White wrote:
>   
>> ----
>> and it looks like we got a choice between 2 candidates who want to
>> double down on the ethanol solution.
>>     
>
> As a car guy, I _LOVE_ ethanol.  106 octane means being able to run
> 13:1 compression on the street.  However, the idea of making it from
> corn is a stupid one.  If I was a politician running for office, the
> artificial constraint of a needed grain (wheat/corn) looks awfully
> attractive.  The US is the dominant supplier of these grains, and if
> we keep the supplies artificially low, then we've brokered a position
> of power in the new food economy.
>
> I don't know if our morons running for office can think that far
> ahead, but if they can, I'm sure they're thinking about this.
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>   
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