On 07/24/2007 15:34, Bernd D. Ratsch wrote:
> That's correct...E85 (and the other Ethanol fuels) don't have the energy in
> them like Gasoline. Cost wise, it's about the same though - MPG vs. Fuel
> Economy. I'm sure the engineers will figure it out eventually as it is a
> new technology for the US.
You're forgetting all the gov't subsidies that put the price there.
Regardless, E10 is within 5 cents (either way) of straight gasoline here
in NY, and the 10% drop in fuel economy makes a tankful of E10 *more*
expensive for me than regular gas.
You're right, Ethanol doesn't have the energy density of gasoline. The
problem I'm referring to is, as Steve mentioned, the yield. It takes
nearly as much energy to turn corn into Ethanol as you get out of the
Ethanol. Now, if we were to use sugar cane (like Brazil does) or sugar
beets (which, unlike sugar cane, grows quite well in much of the
continental US), we'd get much more Ethanol out of each unit of energy
used to make it (cane will produce 7x as much energy as the equivalent
amount of corn, beets are a little less but still a lot better than corn).
The engineers don't need to waste the time and money to "figure it out"
because Brazil *already has* - we're just suffering major NIH syndrome,
plus the powerful corn lobby making sure that things keep working their way.
-- -andyhttp://home.rochester.rr.com/alevy/dakota - andy-dml@levyclan.us -------------------------------------------- "Whatever Adam does, do the opposite and you'll be fine" -Bob Tom --------------------------------------------
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