I have been building ethanol plants for the last 6 years. I like the thought of ethanol as a new fuel source. The feed for animals is better than before it was turned to ethanol. I really only see one problem with this that needs to be solved.
You really only see a 15% increase by making this fuel. The problem being that it takes energy to make energy. This is a common problem with all new renewable energy sources. Gas pump it, refine it, distribute it. Solar panels high cost to make, Low return. Hydrogen (Forget it) way to costly to produce, fantastic for the enviroment though. My dad has told me about the first self sustaining plant that will feed cows and the methane produced will power the ethanol plant if this works it is a new very clean power source. Thoughts and thoughts about this subject. sorry about the spelling
Although I admire all the effort going into finding a realistic alternative fuel, I’m pretty sure E85 isn’t it. It’s not an efficient fuel to produce or use. The MPG is significantly lower, so it will take a horde more E85 to run all of America’s automobiles than the gasoline it currently takes, which means people will also be paying more.
Hydrogen not only costs way too much to produce, but in most cases it’s NOT enviro-friendly because of the methods used to get the hydrogen to its "fuel" state. The fuel itself is enviro-friendly, but the production process is horrible. At least at the moment.
The primary problems with all these supposed alternative fuels (to gasoline) are the production process, distribution method, and efficiency. Most people who fall in like with a "clean" alternative fuel don’t bother to check the process used to make that fuel. Often, the production process is very "dirty".
I hope someone solves the issues, but I also hope Americans realize that the current alternatives are not real solutions.
The only thing making it viable is Government subsidies. Once they disappear (or shrink), the whole thought will collapse.
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Although I admire all the effort going into finding a realistic alternative fuel, I’m pretty sure E85 isn’t it. It’s not an efficient fuel to produce or use. The MPG is significantly lower, so it will take a horde more E85 to run all of America’s automobiles than the gasoline it currently takes, which means people will also be paying more.
Hydrogen not only costs way too much to produce, but in most cases it’s NOT enviro-friendly because of the methods used to get the hydrogen to its "fuel" state. The fuel itself is enviro-friendly, but the production process is horrible. At least at the moment.
The primary problems with all these supposed alternative fuels (to gasoline) are the production process, distribution method, and efficiency. Most people who fall in like with a "clean" alternative fuel don’t bother to check the process used to make that fuel. Often, the production process is very "dirty".
I hope someone solves the issues, but I also hope Americans realize that the current alternatives are not real solutions.
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that’s a excellent choice, but the there are fuel cell engines now, and i reckon that’ll be the way soon.
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The problem with ethanol is where to get all of it? If we replaced all gasoline with ethanol produced using current methods, it would take 95% of the land mass in North America being entirely devoted to agriculture.
As for hydrogen, it is not a fuel source, it is an energy carrier. The most promising thing right now is hydrogen produced through electrolysis from coal power plants. Yes, you still have the pollutants of the coal but the emissions could be better regulated and controlled as it would all occur in one place, not all over the road from every car.
The truth is, who knows how we will wean ourselves off of oil, ethanol, hydrogen, no one solution exists. It will take a combination of different methods to fuel us into the future to learn even more innovative sources of energy.
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Ethanol is possible but not off of corn. There simply isn’t enough corn in the US to do it.
Cellulose would make it possible. 95% of US farmland with corn, 30% with cellulose. If all of the plant waste farmers leave in the fields would be used to make ethanol, better than 60% of gasoline would be replaced with ethanol. That is just using the left over corn stalks, and leftover plant matter.
This would be further reduced if we switch to butanol some time in the future as is has better mpg than ethanol with no corrosive problems.
The energy problem is not as huge as people make it to be. We invent a technology, then we work to make it more efficient. It would be silly to try any other direction. Time is the issue with efficiency. Technologies such as hydrogen aren’t yet efficient because we need to find a viable source that everyone agrees with before we try to make it efficient.
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Are you saying that we are going to power a power plant by cow farts?
Please tell me that I’m missing something.
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