There is a new gas station near my house that is selling E85 gasoline. I drive a Subaru GT and the guide warns about using to high of a gas mixture or I may harm the engine. I also heard of a special chip that you can buy that will let you run the higher concentration while minimizing the risks..but I'm wary. My big thing with ethanol is that it consumes too much farmland..I just don't think that we should be using much needed land that could be used to produce food for ethanol. On the other hand, not many people seem thrilled with diesel engines. Our KAT buses have switched over but few people drive diesel cars today. I think that either would help with pollution but the future has to be with solar energy or hydrogen fuels cells.
http://www.metropulse.com/news/2008/mar/27/bullish-biofuel/
Ethanol vs Biodiesel
Ethanol is one of the reasons food prices are going up so much. Since we're putting so much corn into ethanol, its raising feed prices for livestock and the extra cost is being transfered over to customers. I spend $30 bucks at the store today and it barely covered the essentials.
The Desperado wrote:Ethanol is one of the reasons food prices are going up so much. Since we're putting so much corn into ethanol, its raising feed prices for livestock and the extra cost is being transfered over to customers. I spend $30 bucks at the store today and it barely covered the essentials.
Yeah..I'm seeing this now...especially dairy stuff. Before the baby we pretty much ate out every night. I definitely got a dose of sticker shock when I had to do some grocery shopping last month.
They should turn a big chunk of third world countries into corn plantations. There's tons of unused land in places like africa and south america. Plus, think of the jobs it will create.
Well Brazil uses sugarcane for their ethanol. Supposedly its much more efficient and easier to grow. I don't know why we don't try using that instead of corn. Maybe it won't grow in our climate, i dont know shit about plants.
As for growing more corn in other countries, it sounds like a good idea to me. But I'm sure there is some political or economic factor that stops it from happening.
Don't forget, rising gas prices and the falling dollar are also highly contributing to higher food prices - not that I'm defending ethanol or anything, just pointing that out.
The Desperado wrote:Well Brazil uses sugarcane for their ethanol. Supposedly its much more efficient and easier to grow. I don't know why we don't try using that instead of corn. Maybe it won't grow in our climate, i dont know shit about plants.
Bingo. Sugarcane doesn't grow very well here.
I'll have to look for the article when I get home from work but there was something I read about ethanol lacking in overall mpg. It's cheaper but you aren't getting the mileage it claims.
Cloral wrote:Bingo. Sugarcane doesn't grow very well here.
No, but sugar beets do, and they can be used to produce butanol, a fuel thats closer to gasoline in its properties than ethanol.
The use of corn for ethanol is kind of a mistake, since there are more efficient alternatives our climate can support.
That we're seeing high food prices possibly as a result of our nation's first foray into alternative fuels is a nice sign that we're actually doing something, but more work needs to be done to adequately diversify our fuel sources. Probably my favorite development is fuel algae, which uses genetically modified water algae to convert sunlight into an oil like substance that can be refined into various bio-fuels(including biogasoline).
Ethanol uses food and raises food prices. From what I hear, current biodiesel production techniques use enough power to negate any pollution benefits burning the fuel brings. Sounds like a lose-lose to me.
I often hear the argument that we could just switch to a different crop for ethanol production, but when you consider we're using 40% of the Earth's surface for farming and we're running out of fertile land, I believe anything that drives us to grow more crops might be a detriment. The alternative is to grow less food, which is a bad choice as well.
Ultimately, I'm just kind of sitting back and hoping someone makes a big breakthrough in something that solves some of these problems.
We are losing a lot of fertile land to urban sprawl.
phattonez wrote:We are losing a lot of fertile land to urban sprawl.
Damn suburbanites! It all their fault. Perhaps we should go the way of Solvent Green. That would bring food prices down. Bwhahahahaha.
Archibaldo wrote:They should turn a big chunk of third world countries into corn plantations. There's tons of unused land in places like africa and south america. Plus, think of the jobs it will create.
While we're talking about unrealistic solutions... I say the whole world goes vegan. =3