MoGas users: Ethanol replacing MTBE

On Tue, 02 May 2006 21:10:36 GMT, Jose
wrote:

I think it's 60% less by volume, but it is clean burning.

How much gas does it take to run the farm equipment to generate the corn
in the first place?

It depends on whos figures/studies and results you are willing to
believe. There is a tremendous amount of information out there, in
libraries, text books, and on the Internet and there is less agreement
in it than with the causes of global warming.

"Near as I can tell" it takes the equivalent of one gallon of ethanol
through the growth, harvest, and production cycle to produce roughly
a gallon and a half of product. That is a very small, net energy gain
and far from putting ethanol into a economically competitive position
as an alternative fuel regardless of claims. Also the entire chain is
heavily subsidized along with tax breaks which makes some of the
figures even more suspect.

You can spend hours looking over the results of studies that show
everything from about a 25 to 30% net energy loss to a very large net
energy gain, but nothing about the parameters used in those studies
and the studies mean nothing unless you can see what they took into
consideration. Having raised corn and still owning a small farm which
I rent out, I can say with certainty the study that showed a large net
energy gain had to have left out a lot of items in the cycle that use
a lot of energy. Corn is heavily dependent on growing conditions as
well as herbicides and pesticides. Dry years and wet years make for
lean years. It also takes a lot out of the soil which has to recover
several years before the next crop of corn.

But is it clean burning... wait... I said that before, but it is clean
burning. Actually it'll clean out an engine that's pretty badly
carboned up.

I do think is it a better choice in most cases than MTBE, but
unfortunately not when used in aircraft systems.

In Michigan we have the added problem that they no longer have to
place stickers on the pumps telling what's in the gas. The stickers
only state that the gas meets such and such a standard which may or
may not include ethanol. I believe Michigan has used ethanol from the
"get-go" and not MTBE as we've had Gasohol since the 70's. It took off
in the 70's but a number of the producers went under shortly after the
gas prices went back down. I know of no processes that were turning
in a net energy gain back then.

Roger Halstead (K8RI & ARRL life member)
(N833R, S# CD-2 Worlds oldest Debonair)
www.rogerhalstead.com



Jose