The Ethanol Papers - Paperturn manuscript - Flipbook - Page 241
September 29, 2016
Posted by LMAC N:
Ethanol has FAR less energy-density per gallon than gasoline has. A perfect,
stoichiometric ratio of air-to-fuel for gasoline is 14.7:1 -- for Ethanol it's 9:1. In
other words it takes about 40% MORE Ethanol to generate the same amount
of energy -- you need 1.4 gallons of Ethanol to go as far as 1 gallon of gasoline
will take you. So which is a more efficient use of resources?
And speaking of efficient use of resources -- corn is one of the WORST ways,
in terms of gallons-of-ethanol-produced-per-acre, to make Ethanol. It takes a
LOT more corn to make a gallon of Ethanol than it does, say, switchgrass or
sugarcane (about twice as much, actually). Do you not think that corn-growers
can be just as greedy as the oil companies? Do you not think that they have
lobbyists in D.C. that are pressuring the government to require corn-based ethanol so that THEY can get rich? Is it only the oil companies who are screwing
the consumer, or are corn farmers capable of doing it, too?
IF we were able to produce ethanol from any cellulosic plant material, THEN
we would achieve an efficiency that would rival gasoline in terms of the costper-unit-of-energy-obtained. But we cannot do that yet. Technology will get us
there eventually, I'm sure -- but until then, Ethanol is NOT the panacea that you
make it out to be.
For the average car on the road, Ethanol DOES do damage in multiple ways.
It's EXTREMELY corrosive when compared to gasoline, and eats away at aluminum fuel tanks and rubber fuel-hoses. Most cars on the road today do not
have the stainless-steel fuel-tanks and fuel-lines needed to handle Ethanol.
Reply from MARC:
Hi LMAC - As far as your "stoichiometric ratio" is concerned, you should stowyour-metric-ratio. It serves no purpose in this discussion.
The BTU rating of gasoline over ethanol has nothing to do with how engines
perform. An engine optimized for ethanol delivers more horse power per gallon
of fuel than an engine optimized for gasoline. This issue has been erroneously
raised numerous times on this blog. Repeating the erroneous information
doesn't make it true, and my having to repeat the correct information multiple
times doesn't make it false.
