The Ethanol Papers - Paperturn manuscript - Flipbook - Page 258
Internal combustion engines are optimized to run on specific fuels. Optimization
is achieved by mechanical adjustments. A gasoline-powered ICE is optimized
(adjusted) to run on gasoline. The performance of that engine is dependent
upon the optimization. The proof of this is that if you tried to use another liquid
fuel that has a higher BTU rating (such as diesel) in a gasoline-optimized engine
you do not get better MPG, you get worse MPG - in fact the engine would not
run on 100% diesel.
A gasoline-optimized engine might operate on a blend of 80% gasoline and
20% diesel (if you accidentally put some diesel in the tank), but it doesn't get
better MPG to correspond with the higher BTU diesel, it gets worse MPG.
Follow up by DAVID N:
BTU as is a measurement of Joules, the basic measurement for all energy. 1
BTU = 1055.05585 Joules. Energy is a measurement of how much work is
done. An engine's primary purpose is to do work. Diesel is an ICE engine, it just
will no work in a normal gas engine. 87 pump gas has a max compression ratio
of about 10x while diesel is in the range of 18 to 22x, so your gas engine simply
doesn't compress the fuel enough to produce the explosion to do work. Diesel
engines don't use spark plugs to create the explosion but rather compression
to create the explosion. No engine will run properly on incorrect fuel eg if you
put 2 stroke fuel in a 4 stroke engine, it might run, just not very well. Your response makes no sense.
Reply from MARC:
Exactly, it's all about engine optimization, not BTUs. Your continuous attempts
to make BTU measurements important are what doesn't make sense.
Follow up by DAVID N:
You missed my point. A car will always go further on a gallon gas than a gallon
of ethanol. Look at Brazil that uses E100, in vehicles made for E100 as compared to E10, there was an increase in HP and Torque of around 8% but there
was a drop in fuel efficiency of 20-25%. This was on the same car the VW Polo.
