Why would fleets of vehicles be converted to ethanol? The infrastructure doesn't exist.
Really, if you had just read the article it would have saved you from typing this. You are determined that you are right even though you refuse to educate yourself about the subject. You are welcomed to your opinions and if you wish to be ignorant so be it.
I think you need to re-read the article. There is a link to the Paul Dana Motorsports site that clearly explains what fuels are used and will be used at Indy.
Brazil has the most experience of operating vehicles on ethanol, and the determined researcher will look to their experience.
Any engine that has a BSFC as good on E85 as on gasoline is a seriously misdesigned one. There is, as a point of interest, just such an engine in existence-the air cooled, horizontally opposed high compression Lycoming aircraft engine. Because there is a Supplemental Type Certificate allowing for legal use of ethanol fuel in certain Lycoming engines in certain airframes, a significant collection of data points exists.
Your claim is so ludicrous it's not worth responding to in detail. If you want to know why, look up the energy density of ethanol or methanol and compare and contrast with that of pump gasoline. On a per gallon basis there's quite a bit of difference. Therefore an engine may be running *more* efficiently on *thanol but will still show lower efficiency on a MPG basis than gasoline. Any mechanical improvements in efficiency will skew the numbers for *both* fuels, thus *thanol will always be at a disadvantage.
This, incidentally, is also the reason that stoichiometric for *thanol is *not* 14.7:1 as it is for gasoline. It takes a *lot* more *thanol to 100% utilize the same volume of O2 as it does gasoline.
Because there is more energy per unit volume with gasoline than there is with E85, so if BFSC doesn't go DOWN with a switch to E85, then it was seriously too high on straight gasoline.
The same arguement has been used against LP gas - but because of the higher octane rating of LP, an engine optimized for LP (higher compression and different valve timing) can deliver more crankshaft horsepower per gallon of fuel burned on LP than on Gasoline. Even without changing cam timing, you CAN get the same power output
I suspect the same would be true of Ethanol, as it also has a higher octane rating, does it not?
Run advanced timing, higher compression, and higher operating temperature - then all you need to warry about is NoX. So you need a good reduction catalyst ----.
Well, I can definately tell which of you own stock in an oil company and which does not.
The common rumor, and I say RUMOR, is that ethanol is highly corrosive. Methanol is highly corrosive, ethanol is not. Granted that it is harsher on pre 80s automotive rubber seals that are designed for gasoline only use, but to say that it will eat aluminum and plastics is often disproved when the one saying this comment goes and buys an aluminum keg of beer, then pours it in a plastic cup and drinks it!
Ok, we all realize that ethanol has less BTU than gasoline and resulting mileage loss on an low compression engine, but the power potential of ethanol makes it a highly desirable fuel. With proper engine enhancements, the 103 octane rating of E85 can make an engine outperform any gasoline counterpart with nearly the exact same mileage. For example, the Ford Mustang FFV Super Stallion will make 50 more horsepower on E85 than it does with straight unleaded.
The simple fact is, ethanol is a renewable fuel and the technological advancement in fermenting and distilling is approaching to the point to where ethanol is currently competitive with gasoline, no IFs, ANDs, or BUTs about it. When the April 05 Midwest quote of fuel grade and distilled ethanol is $44/barrel where unrefined raw crude oil was at $56/barrel, well it doesn't take a genious to figure out the economics of this renewable fuel. Anyone who disagrees is either close minded and uneducated or is gullable to the words spoken by those who have the most to loose from the advancement in the bio-fuels industry.
Starting your post off with a conspiracy theory does little for your credibility.
Making a self-contradictory statement like this further erodes your credibility. The volume BTU content of a liquid fuel *IS* its "power potential."
Octane rating does not equal "power potential".
That is quite debatable.
IF the heavy subsidies for fuel ethanol are allowed to expire in a few years as is currently scheduled to occur, AND ethanol remains even remotely competitive with gasoline, then you'll have a point. BUT, either the subsidies will be renewed or ethanol's feasibility will go "kerFLUSH", so your point is moot.
Disregarding the "military Subsidy" enjoyed by petroleum, if the ethanol industry, including American Farmers, did not recieve a subsidy, the overall cost, and fuel savings, from using ethanol very quickly become non-competetive in today's world. Making ethanol from food grains (corn, barley, wheet, etc) requires almost as much energy input as you get out of the resulting fuel. The natural gas used to make the fertilizer used to grow the corn, plus the fuel required to prepair the soil, plant the crop, keep it relatively weed free, and harvest it, and the energy required to process and distill the mash adds up pretty quickly.
If you can use waste products from the food crop, the situation gets a lot better, but the same part of corn is used for livestock feed, food grain, and industrial feedstocks (sugars, starches, oils, etc) and running a compression ignition engine on corn oil is likely just as cost effective, as well as renewable, as running ethanol in a spark ignition engine.
The un-avoidable truth is the day of the "infernal combustion engine" is rapidly coming to a close.Fuel cell electrics, whether fed from alcohols, hydrogen, or some other fuel, appear to be the near-term alternative, with electricity from some as-yet-undeveloped source, combined with new battery technology running a close second.
Is it a conspiracy or just plain old capitalism? Why, the big oil company's would never discredit or try to eliminate any competition would they? No they just have consumers best interests in mind, right?
No, but an eninge with higher compression and more timing will make more power and have better economy.
You are the one that has made blanket statements without proof of any kind. Just opinions. I have at least provided a link to a web site that backs up my position. Before you dismiss it out of hand you should at least read it, if you are at all interested in contributing to the discussion in a meaningful way. At any rate if you have some information that disputes the facts as I have presented them then I am more than willing to look at it. I have a real interest in the topic and would consider all informed opinions. I await your reply.
Ok i use ethanol gas from sunoco and regular gas from other stations.My car runs better on sunoco gas and mpg is no better or worse than gas from other stations. i see alot of cars at sunoco stations .So i guess ethanol is not bad like some people say.
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