The Ethanol Papers - Paperturn manuscript - Flipbook - Page 220
it has risen. If you find that the level of the liquid in the container has risen
(without any manipulation, change to the environment of your indoor
kitchen, or interference to the natural process) and you can document it,
I will pay you $1,000.
"Incidentally, cotton is also a hygroscopic substance. So just as additional
proof that being a hygroscopic substance doesn't mean that it absorbs
water right out of the air, place a ball of cotton on the other side of your
kitchen counter and see if it gets saturated with water from just sitting out
in the open.
"Moving on to one of Jay's other points, if you were to pour a gallon of
water in your gasoline tank your vehicle will probably have great difficulty
starting. But that's not how water gets in your gasoline tank, unless you're
very, very drunk when you go to the filling station. You can get water in
your fuel system because of condensation. So what do you do if you have
some water in your fuel system? Do you stick a straw in and suck it out?
No, you add a product like Dry Gas. Dry Gas is ethanol, meaning that you
use ethanol to solve the problem of water in your gasoline tank. That's
right, to solve the problem!
"Ethanol doesn't actually absorb the water, it breaks the water molecules
down so that ignition and combustion of the gasoline can take place. The
water molecules are then expelled in the exhaust. In other words, ethanol
aids combustion, not inhibits combustion as Jay stated."
Jeff, you write about the possibility of needing to replace and/or repair some of
the components that might get damaged by the ethanol. There are two points I
would like to make on this issue:
To start, and speaking purely anecdotally, my own personal experience is different. My experience with older cars and different gasoline fuels concerns a
1956 Bentley S1 that I owned and drove regularly for more than 20 years. I
purchased the vehicle when leaded-gasoline was still the only gasoline fuel
commonly available. My ownership lasted through the unleaded MTBE era and
into the E10 era.
Friends belonging to the Bentley Owners Club members were very concerned
when unleaded gasoline was proposed and mandated. The frantic claims were
very similar to the frantic claims later made against E10. I never experienced
any problems switching to unleaded gasoline with MTBE.
