Greetings . . .

Right now I think the formula is:

Cain + Grain + Coal = E85

Until the processes used to distill biomass into ethanol take greater advantage of the carbon in the biomass - we're simply trading a coal fired smoke stack producing electricity (that is in turn used in the distallation process) for a gallon of grain alcohol.

Granted this would elminate dependence on foreign oil sources - but do we really want to burn any more coal then we already burn?

The other troublesome problem with ethanol is the BTU rating of the stuff. A gallon of ethanol is like 2/3 of a gallon of regular gas. So if gas is going for $3 and ethanol is going for $2 it is a wash to the consumer. But even with 'parity' of price it's less convenient. If 20 gallons of gas takes their car 400 miles - 20 gallons of ethanol will take them only 266 miles. They may do 10-15% better than this - if the flex fuel system runs correctly and leans out the mixture - and the driver's foot isn't to heavy (cause the car just isn't as peppy as it was on pure gas). But ultimately you really need a higher compression ratio engine to take best advantage of ethanol - but then you don't have flexible fuel engine.

I think E85 will be a player in the market - but I don't see it as the final solution to our problems . We simply demand way more energy then we can produce domestically.

For me the most important thing we can do in America is agree on a single standard for fuels across the county. This will eliminate spot shortages for specific formulations and eliminate some of the volatility in price that we currently experience. Why do we need 5 different specifications for fuel in this country? It's more when you consider summer versus winter formulations in some markets.

regards,
stock49

Biomass Ethanol
Gas is Gas?
Ethanol the answer?

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