Peak Oil 1 year later.

[Drew99GT]

Where does the technology stand with regards to alcohol/methenol as a fuel? It seems logical to me that that should be the next major internal combustion engine fuel; **** , diesels already use it in some forms, don't they? Methenol/alcohol is completely renewable, and it has an unlimited octane rating for the performance brothers

 

[jason07-1zzfe]

Well I'm sure we COULD use it, but I read somewhere that to provide enough fuel if we used 100% ethanol, something like the entire area of the United States would have to be crop land and it still wouldn't produce enough.
I'll try and find the site again.

 

[needtoknow]

quote:

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Originally posted by blano:
With out Government freebies won by the corn lobby Etanol/methanol is a big loser.

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That's right Blano, the Bush Energy bill gives huge subsidies to the corn lobby. Thing is it takes more energy input to produce corn based ethanol than it produces. And for all the board members here who pass me off as just another liberal, I wrote Tom Daschle(D)SD just after the introduction of the energy bill and accused him of "issue prostitution" for slamming the Repubs on the bill while going home and claiming victory for the SD corn farmers.

 

[needtoknow]

Shannow,
That's a great post. At first glance it seems ok. The BTU output looks greater than BTU input. If this works out we may also see a solution to all those landfills that everyone uses but nobody wants.

 

[Shannow]

needtoknow, the BTU output is less than the BTU input....however, the 100 btu that is input would normally go to waste, and thus the 85 you get back is a freebie.