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by Daniel Berger.
Original Post: Why Ethanol sucks, continued
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I was just reading Ian Bicking's blog and he had a link to a PDF file explaining why Ethanol is a crappy, crappy alternative to gasoline. I emailed this to a good friend of mine who happens to be a mechanical engineer in Detroit. His reply was pretty good, so I provide it in its entirety:
I can't speak to the accuracy of the cost of producing ethanol, but the way ethanol is marketed as a major scam. Many people quote that ethanol is cheaper per gallon - this is because a gallon of ethanol only has ~75% of the energy per volume that gasoline has. A car running 100% ethanol would have much lower mpg than a gasoline car, so it better be cheaper.
I worked on E85 fuel for awhile (85% ethanol, 15% gasoline) and it has major problems. The fuel tank must be larger to have a decent drving range (higher vehicle weight), and ethanol is so reactive that it burns holes in the cylinder block over time. This 'pitting' causes poor combustion (higher fuel consumption and oil consumption). In addition, at cold temperatures, ethanol doesn't burn nearly as well as gas, so you need to 'dump it in' to start the car. This extra fuel goes in the oil, and freezes since ethanol attracts water out of the air. Finally, ethanol is not compatible with all the additives used in gasoline to prevent clogging of injectors, valves, etc., so all of these components get gummed up and increase emissions.
Good thing all the senators and congressmen want subsidies for corn!!!!!!!!!!
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