Gas prices got you down?
Today, gas hit above $75 a barrel with the price of gas above $4.00 in some parts of California. Seems like everyone is talking about what we can do
Aside from riding your bike or walking to school, there’s always public transportation. But a friend mentioned ethanol as finally becoming a serious alternative or supplement to current gasoline. Having been born in Kansas corn country, his comment had my attention. He told me Brazil has been in the forefront of the movement of replacing gasoline with ethanol, which is made from sugar cane grown in the country. Now 7 out of 10 of their cars sold there are "flex-fuel" vehicles which run on either or both fuels. If ethanol is more expensive you can choose gas or vice versa.
Another friend told me many or most of the new cars out there are considered "green machines" because they can run on blends of ethanol and gasoline. I did some searching and found a very interesting Fuel Economy Study where they compared various ethanol blends for performance and miles per gallon.
• Unleaded with 10% standard ethanol (E10)
• Unleaded with 20% standard ethanol (E20)
• Unleaded with 30% standard ethanol (E30)
• Unleaded with 10% ethanol denatured with iso-pentane and bio-diesel
(E10AK)
Apparently, even my Solara can run on some of the blends with minimal loss in miles per gallon.
Meanwhile, students from the Danish college of technology (DTU) have a new vehicle which drove 15 miles on .35 ounces of hydrogen. So definately, progress is being made in the area of alternative fuel sources. Hopefully we’ll have some choices sooner or later.
I was left with some questions though. Like where would someone buy an ethanol blend? Is it safe for your engine?
So what do make of the current gasoline situation? Do you see ethanol as a good solution or what else do you think might fix our gasoline problem?
Technorati Tags: gasoline, expense, ethanol, pump, cars
{ 4 comments }
In the UK gas is about 2 or 3 times the price paid in the USA, mostly due to the tax the government puts on it! I would love an alternative! Some poeple in the UK are trying to form a co-operative to negotiate a better discount, check out http://www.PipelineCard.org maybe you could try it in the USA?
Ethanol has a lower energy density than gasoline: 1.6 gallons of ethanol to every gallon of gas. It has a higher octane rating, but unless an engine is designed to use ethanol exclusively, it won’t benefit from ethanol’s ability to take higher compression (which leads to greater efficiency; gasoline vapors will spontaneously combust if compressed to the pressures that ethanol works best at, causing uncontrollable engine knocking.)
Ethanol also happens to be a corrosive solvent; older cars may have tubing and gaskets that ethanol will dissolve, so you can’t just substitute ethanol for gas; your car has to be specially fitted with ethanol compatible infrastructure.
I talk alot about ethanol at my BioConversion Blog. To answer your questions:
I was left with some questions though. Like where would someone buy an ethanol blend? Is it safe for your engine?
You probably already are driving on an ethanol blend. In most states now, the oxygenate MTBE is being replaced with ethanol – 6% of the volume of gasoline in California. You could drive on 10% ethanol without any modification to your engine and some states are considering setting the blend to that level.
There are about 500 stations nationwide that sell E85 (85% ethanol) but you need a flex-fuel car for that. There are currently about 500,000 flex-fuel cars in operation in the U.S. – but most of their owners (pick-up drivers) don’t even know that – hence the recent G.M. campaign. You can check at the NEVC website (www.e85fuel.com) where they have specific models listed. Expect more models to follow.
So what do make of the current gasoline situation?
High prices are going to spur the development of alternatives. Investors are salivating for opportunities as the number of biorefineries will effectively double from 95 to 200 within the next 6 years. Not to mention new cellulosic ethanol facilities which will be located not just in the Midwest but some will be waste-to-ethanol facilities in urban areas.
Do you see ethanol as a good solution or what else do you think might fix our gasoline problem?
Since it only adds about $100 to the production of a vehicle to make it flex-fuel compatible, all vehicles should be made flex-fuel compatible – increasing our purchase options at the pump. Also, all hybrids including revolutionary plug-in designs (PHEVs) should be made flex-fuel compatible. If so, a 100mpg PHEV running on E85 would get about 500 miles for each gallon of gasoline. Just the threat of that kind of competition should depress the price of gasoline. Not to mention the positive impact on the environment since ethanol runs cleaner than gasoline.
I heard on the radio that flex fuel autos aren’t selling so well here in the US for some reason. When I bought my last car, there was one on the market, but they had sold out and there was a waiting period of 4 months or so. So I wasn’t wanting to wait that long. Now to hear they can’t sell them is interesting.