Subj : Re: Ethanol Fuel
To   : Tracker1
From : Angus McLeod
Date : Mon Aug 29 2005 02:20:00

  Re: Re: Ethanol Fuel
  By: Tracker1 to Queen on Sun Aug 28 2005 21:28:00

 > Also, it's my understanding that the milage you will get out of even a 
 > higher alcohol/ethanol mix is much lower than gasoline, which means a 
 > greater cost per mile than gas, even with the newer pricing.

The calorific value for petrol (gasolene) is around 50% higher than that 
of ethanol.  So with two engines operating the same level of efficiency, 
you would have to burn 50% more alcohol based fuel in order to liberate
the same amount of energy so as to do comparable work.

I believe that there must be advantages of efficiency possible with 
alcohol based fuels.  I base this belief simply upon the fact that it is 
common for racing enthusiasts to abandon petroleum based fuels in favour 
of alcohol based fuels at higher levels of competition.  They MUST be 
doing it for some reason, and I doubt very much that cost is the issue.  
But for sake of argument, I will disregard increased efficiency as a 
possibility.

I don't know how practical it would be to operate two of the *same* 
engines on the two distinctly different fuels, even if you modified one 
dramatically to suit, but I know that R/C models generally use engines 
designed from the ground up for use with methanol, and they chuck out a 
lot of horsepower for their capacity.  (Like 1 HP for 5cc displacement)  

So presumably it should not be difficult to design an engine from the 
ground up to operate on alcohol based fuels and deliver comparable power 
levels to a petrol engine.  Ignoring the possibility of higher efficiency 
levels, such an engine would, consume 50% more ethanol fuel by volume than 
the petrol engine.

Obviously, alcohol is not economically viable as a replacement for petrol, 
unless the cost of alcohol is 2/3rds that of petrol, or less.  An ethanol/ 
petrol mix would be in the same boat as pure ethanol, but the calorific 
value (and thus extra volume needed to liberate equivilent energy) would 
be somewhere in between, as would the reduction in price needed for 
economical viability.

At the moment, the cost of alcohol based fuels may be well above the 
2/3rds cost of petrol suggested here.  But as petroleum prices rise and 
supply shortens, the economic viability of alcohol based fuels can only 
improve.  If hidden costs of petroleum based fuels are included in the 
equation (Artic melting is under discussion at SlashDot right now) the 
situation might look even more rosy for alcohol based fuels.

What worries me is that there seems to be little *real* encouragement from 
the state to promote research into alcohol based fuels.  (Or ANY 
alternative fuels, for that matter.)  If, as it appears will be the case, 
they deny the problem until the last oil well runs dry, we will have 
millions of vehicles that will run only on a fuel that is simply not 
available at any price.  And the technology needed for efficient 
production of alcohol based (or whatever type) fuels and engines that run 
efficiently on such fuels will be in it's infancy.  How long will it take 
to get up to speed then?  And what will be the cost in dollars and 
personal hardships?

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