Domestic Fuel

OKAY, Lets look at some facts.

Ethanol has a higher octane than gas. Ethanol has less BTUs but due to the higher octane it can produce more “work” in an engine than gas can. A typical gas engine has 75% waste heat and only 25% work, whereas an engine designed to run ethanol has only 60% waste heat and can produce 40% work. This is a good way to save fuel and could be considered a good ROI.

The 1,596-cc Sigma engine launches flexible-fuel here (Brazil) for Ford, initially to power the Focus. It pumps out 114bhp at 5,500rpm on ethanol and 107.8bhp at 6,200rpm on petrol; torque is 117.8lb ft and 111.4lb ft, respectively

This engine produces more horsepower at lower RPMs using Ethanol!! Higher horsepower at less RPMs = better fuel economy. The engine gets a lower fuel economy using gasoline. Detroit purposely makes low compression engines so that they can have a selling point “this car can use regular gas”.

The corn that is used to make ethanol is dent corn that people can’t eat anyway. After the corn is processed into ethanol there is a product called distillers grain, which is a much better animal feed after the carbs are removed to produce ethanol. Nothing is wasted. So the food for fuel argument is non sense.

The next generation in ethanol production will be cellulosic ethanol which will produce even more ethanol by using all of the corn plant and other materials like wood chips, grass clippings from you lawn (all yard waste) and switchgrass. Switchgrass is usually planted on farms where the owners are being paid not to grow crops. It can also be planted on the sides of the roads up and down our vast highway system, harvested, baled and used locally. Switchgrass is also used for erosion control.

Ethanol is way cleaner than gasoline and does not leave the gummy deposits in your fuel system. IF the oil companies stopped using our gasoline as a dump for the leftovers from oil refining and were forced to dispose of their waste in an environmentally sound way we would not pollute so much as we drove down the street. In Europe the oil refineries are not allowed to dump their waste into the fuel supply. Cars in Europe do not have catalytic converters which are known to reduce horsepower and fuel economy.

Cleaner engines run better and last longer with less repairs and reduced maintenance. Go to youtube and type in “non flex fuel”. You will see where a tech school took a 2001 chevy tahoe and ran mostly E85 for over 100k. Then the took the engine completely apart and compared it to vehicles that burned regular gas. Ethanol won out in a big way.

Everytime you fill up you can add a gallon of E85 to your tank. If the average fill up is 15 gallons of gas. First add a gallon of E85.
(85 + 140 (10 x 14 = 140)) = 225/15 = 15% ethanol. I have used E30 in my non flex fuel vehicles for years and have driven tens of thousands of miles if not a few hundred thousand miles on blended fuels and have not experienced any problems in my vehicles. My current vehicle has over 140k and runs like a champ.

There is between 18 to 19 gallon of gas in each barrell of oil. So if you added a gallon of E85 per fill up you can reduce the amount of oil we import as a country.

and one last thing. Slow down. People drive too fast. Fast starts and speeding to your destination waste gas, especially those in SUVs who drive like they are trying out for NASCAR. Plan your day and leave in plenty of time so that you do not have to drive 10, 15, 20 or 30 miles per hour over the limit.

by the way, NASCAR got its start by running moonshine (ethanol) and will be burning almost pure ethanol by 2011. All formula one racecars use pure ethanol (indy 500), pure ethanol. So stop believing all of the lies that ethanol is bad.