More ethanol coming to your gas tank?

More great news from the geniuses we give our taxes to:

http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=14238

wow. obama wasn't joking about CHANGE. i wish people would of asked obama." is change suppose to be for the better or the worse?"

EDIT: On second thought, it's just not worth it.

(Message edited by joe_crawley on February 11, 2009)

How about it isn’t cost effective. If it wasn’t subsidized so heavily then it would be more expensive than gas. There is also the fact that it is driving up the price of food.

Gah, I thought we all learned the lesson last year that ethanol production, by switching over food production, is not the way to go?

Does anyone know or care how much water it takes to "grow" a gallon of ethanol? The Middle East imports corn like we import fuel because they don't have the water to grow food. What are we going to do when we run out of water to drink or grow food? I would miss driving if we had no fuel to power our cars/trucks, but I would miss food and water much worse!

Watch Survivor Man to find out what you do when you run out of water.

This is the way I see it:

I do hope that they never mandate a corn ethanol blend (which seems quite possible). (Corn) Ethanol is actually about 25% (anyone have an exact number?) less efficient than gasoline. Strangely enough, you can still get straight gasoline here in Iowa and that is all that we fill our boat up with. People with older cars/boats might not want to put ethanol in their cars/boats because the Octane is higher than gasoline (which is why you often see it in the mid range octane), and thus you need an engine with more compression or you will get less efficiency.

IMO corn ethanol is bad as an energy source, and we really could have gone with much better technologies.

I can't wait till ICM's leash starts to lax a little on their plants and they start using switchgrass , seawead, etc.. Instead of just corn.

According to the 2008 PCM engine manual for my MB, more than 10% ethanol will be very bad and void my warranty:


GASOLINE CONTAINING ALCOHOL

The implementation of ethanol-based fuel is spreading rapidly throughout the United States. As such, PCM Engines provides the following information regarding the use of this fuel.

This information addresses the use of ethanol fuels in PCM ENGINES ONLY. It does not address the use of ethanol fuels in vessel related components such as boat gas tanks, boat fuel lines, etc.

Ethanol blended fuel rated E10 or less is acceptable to use. Fuels rated higher than E10 SHOULD NOT BE USED. Ethanol fuels rated higher than E10 could potentially damage the engine and/or present an unsafe boating condition. Damage to the engine resulting from the use of ethanol fuel rated higher than E10 IS NOT covered by the warranty.

If ethanol blended fuel rated E10 or less is used, or if the presence of alcohol is uncertain, more frequent inspections and service of the complete fuel system are required. Any sign of fuel leakage or deterioration must be repaired immediately before further engine operation.

It is important to note that ethanol blended fuel will act as a solvent and will attract and hold moisture. Without proper fuel stabilization and fuel fi ltration, ethanol blended fuel may cause the following:
• Excessive moisture (water) may cause lean operation to include hard starting and operating difficulties such as, vapor lock, low speed stalling, and shortened fuel shelf life.
• Acting as a solvent, ethanol blended fuel may cause gum, sediment, sludge, and other particles to be loosened and carried through the fuel system to the engine. Fuel system or engine damage caused by contamination from water, foreign particles, sludge, or gums entering or forming in the fuel system is not covered by the PCM Limited Warranty.

Fuel Stabilizer Recommendations for Ethanol Blend Fuel.
The use of a commercially available fuel stabilizer, such as STA-BIL®, is recommended when storing ethanol-blended fuel for more than 2 weeks.



Most of the people in government who will try to push this through probably consider it an important benefit if it wrecks our engines, as punishment for the use of those engines. They are rich enough to replace their own equipment whenever needed anyway.

I guess my Tahoe can run on pure Ethanol - Flex Fuel. However, it isn't sold anywhere close to me and from what I hear it actually will get me lower gas milage.

Here's the warning on my boat....




In regions where the EPA does not require ethanol, I've found that premium is the easiest to find without ethanol. In fact, many gas stations post signs that the premium is ethanol-free. Regular and mid-grade are getting harder to find without ethanol every year.

With pure Ethanol having something like 83% of the chemical energy of petrol I highly doubt it.

Our local gas station is now selling blended fuel, I think the one up the road is too but they don't advertise the fact, you can smell the difference though.

(Message edited by jtnz on February 12, 2009)

Dave,

My Tahoe goes from 14MPG average to 11MPG average when I switch from 10% to 85% ethanol.