Pure gas vs E85

[Frank]

I could easily find cites and I know you do not like to think for yourself. But, you called me into question and it is up to you to prove me wrong.

[Jim Joyce]

That's not how it works. You made a claim and were asked to support it. Now the best you can do is walk away and say 'prove me wrong'? I think you proved yourself wrong.

[Hawk]

It was causing the tires to spin with a high pitch.

[gfretwell]

I use E-10 for everything and I don't have any trouble but my boat keeps the gas moving. I just don't put gas powered tools away without running them dry so they always get fresh gas. I usually mix it on the spot. A pint of gas gets 10ccs of oil for 50:1. You can usually talk your pharmacy out of a 10cc syringe for free. It would be less than a buck if they made you pay. My weed eater uses 32:1 but the tank is less than a pint so I give it

10ccs of oil. I suppose I could measure how much it really is and do the math to meter the exact right amount but this is not that critical.

[gfretwell]

The price of both alcohol and crude vary widely but I assume both go into the price along with more than a little wiggle room to flatten the curve. I know the $40 XOM I bought during the panicdemic is doing OK so they must be doing something right. ($47 today, +17.5% in a month or so)

[gfretwell]

The sun is making about a billion tons a day but transportation is a bitch.

[Jim Joyce]

They're working on a pipeline.

[Frank]

It works for me.

[Frank]

I see my BP is way down but I held it for years starting as Amoco.

Here is a little ethanol tidbit for the libs:

Mentions subsidy along with raising the price of food as an unintended consequence. I understand maybe a 50 cent a gallon tariff was put on ethanol from Brazil where it is cheaper.

[rbowman]

I worked for a biochemistry company in Boston where the founder was a PhD level chemist. He did love the helium trick at company get togethers. There were a lot of PhDs floating around there, most of which were strange. One of the best chemists was welded to his WalkMan (this was the '80s). No unusual except afaik the only thing he listened to was Pink Floyd.

[rbowman]

What does alcohol subsidization have to do with the price of tortillas in Chihuahua? A hell of a lot.

[rbowman]

The Space Force is recruiting Democrats for the exploratory probe.

[gfretwell]

I guess they will start on it right after the wall is done. ;-) Will we get the venusians to pay for it?

[gfretwell]

Most environmentalists have given up on Ethanol as being their dream fuel. The ecological costs are too high and Brazil is the poster child for this. We see a microcosm of this here is South Florida where we are blaming sugar for all of our water ills. Granted most US ethanol comes from corn instead of the sugar they use in Brazil but our corn crop is far from benign too. The latest boogie man is Glyphosate but there are also concerns about the GMO frankencorn Monsanto has a strangle hold on.

[Sam E]

I seem to remember a recommendation to use a special blend that is 78% nitrogen.

[Mark Lloyd]

[snip]

That reminds me of some TV show where they were talking about "environmental" groups that were really just political and knew nothing about the environment. A lot of people would sign a petition to ban dihydrogen monoxide. Anyone asking what that is were told something like "It's a chemical used in industrial processes, which gets into lakes and rivers. People who have contact with it get cancer.".

[Scott Lurndal]

Economies of scale. The more thay make of something, the cheaper it is to sell.

[Scott Lurndal]

Of course, ethanol blends started during the Nixon adminstration, production subsidies started during the Reagan administraion and democrats were fully aware of the impacts related to diversion of corn production; to an extent, this led to the "minnesota model" of ethanol production designed to keep profits local.

You must be living in a a hole somewhere if the impacts of ethanol production are new to you. They certainly aren't news to democrats.

IIRC, this is related to the long-standing tariffs on Brazilian sugar which have been in place to protect uneconomic sugar production in the southeastern United States.

[Scott Lurndal]

Unfortunatly, Venus has filed a lawsuit to prevent the pipeline from crossing their orbit. The pipeline company is sueing.

[Frank]

Even that great god of the left, Al Gore, has said it was a mistake. Big agribusiness like ADM greased the palms of both parties to put in the oxygen mandate. Industry found they could meet the mandate cheaper with MTBE but then it was found that if gasoline leaked into the soil then aquifers that even 1 ppb of MTBE made the water taste bad and it was banned.

Glyphosphate is another issue and part of GMO. The weeds have also learned to be tolerant of it. BTW, glyphosphate is safe but greedy law firms are out to make money off the questionable epidemiological studies that say it causes cancer.

You can make ethanol from anything that has cellulose in it. For something like grass or wood it would require extra steps including hydrolysis which just kick up the cost. Corn sugar, glucose, and cane and beet sugar, sucrose, are easy to ferment without extra treatment.