"Si" wrote in message
oups.com...

Tater Schuld wrote:


I've been contemplating switching some vehicles over to 100% ethanol,
and
grow my own, to kill off the demand for it at the pump. if the demand is
high does than mean seed corn is going to skyrocket too?



Corn is not the most efficient source for ethanol. If I am wearing a
cynical hat I am prone to think that it is just an agri-business
wheeze. They are all set up for handling corn, they have squeezed the
cost end of the business to the bone, the only way left is the old
fashioned grow the demand end. They have practically maxed out the corn
syrup side of things (try finding any food stuff out there that doesn't
have added corn syrup). So what's left? Fuel. Elephant grass yields
more ethanol than corn by some margin and yet 'go green, go yellow' is
the refrain. Not very joined up thinking. IMHO biodiesel is a better
option for a home brewer.



Si

"Bog snorkler extraordinaire"

I agree that adding ethanol (or methanol for that matter) to fuel is little
more than a way to sell the stuff. In fact, the only good sounding argument
that I can ever remember hearing for alcohol as a fuel is that, when used as
100% of the fuel, it supposedly does not require additives to meet a
performance number, a/k/a octane. Supposedly, it you have a high
compression engine, and want to run at high power, you just run it rich.
However, alcohol is hydroscopic and required a lot of energy to produce.
Perhaps, if we have built a couple of nuclear power plants each year for the
past three decades, we would have electric power in need of a market. OTOH,
if we had all that surplus electric capacity, it would probably make more
sense to just run electric trains and busses directly. I won't suggest
anything beyond those, but some niche markets cold make sense.

As a concept, diesel almost makes sense for ground pounding, but I have no
idea what is actually required to home-brew it. If you buy diesel for an
automobile at the pump you will eventually break even, which is better than
the gasoline electric hybrids, but the cars currently offered seem to be
geared purely for advertised fuel economy so that performance can be poor.

Currently, I am not sold on diesel aircraft for the homebuilder; despite the
outstanding work done by Thielert. If you can buy one of theirs, it seems
to make sense. And it obviously assure the availability of compatible fuel
at airports. But if you plan to convert your own, the engines of which I am
aware seem to weigh at least a third more than an equivalent gasoline
engine. I am not convinced they really have to be that heavy, since modern
computer controlled injection systems should be able to limit the peak
pressures, but the automotive diesels (mainly VW) that I know to be
available in the US are a little too heavy to have any advantage.

Peter