[mdlug] Automotive technical info wanted (only slightly off topic)

[Drew]

At 08:21 PM 5/6/07, Aaron Kulkis wrote:

>Drew, you do realize that Ethanol production consumes more BTUs
>of energy than it produces... :-/

     I know a bit about the ethanol boondoggle being foisted on us by 
the powers-that-be.
I've been at this alternate energy search for quite some time now.

     It is true that the way they are doing it is a loser, easily 
confirmed by actually pricing
the stuff at Meijer. It is known that E85 has two thirds the BTUs per 
gallon as straight
gasoline, but it is priced at way over that mark.

     However, there are reasons for considering an ethanol-capable 
drive anyway:

* Ethanol can be made from other things besides corn. For one thing, 
I've come across a procedure
   for breaking down the cellulose in wood pulp by means of sulfuric 
acid, to provide raw material for
   the yeast to work on. (Cellulose is polymerized sugar.)

* Methanol. is even easier to make, technologically; the process is 
called "destructive distillation
   of wood. And its behavior is similar enough to the two-carbon 
variety of alcohol that a flex fuel engine
   *might* be able to digest it, particularly if it's in a gasoline 
blend. (I hear that 4-carbon alcohol
    (butanol) can be used as-is on gasoline-only engines; though 
there might be some pumping
    problems below about 25 degrees C (77 F).

* In any event I'd like to get away from having to *buy* the fuel, or 
at least instead switch to buying
   from someone who doesn't know what they've got and will charge 
considerably less per BTU.
   I really wanted diesel drive, along with the $70 kit for adapting 
it to burn used cooking oil. Or better
   yet a steam engine, stirling engine, or similar external 
combustion burn-anything. But again it's
   something I didn't get much choice on. (A gas turbine might work 
out, but that's for a different
   topic.) This means that what Meijer charges at their E85 pump may 
be more or less irrelevant.

  (Come to think of it, Meijer also has a natural gas pump, the price 
on which is listed in "$ per
   gallon equivalent of gasoline", and was set to $1.99 when I looked 
last week. I wonder how
   accurate the number is, and how much a conversion would cost...)


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- Drew.