I’d be really happy if I could get ethanol free gasoline.
I love it when ethanol rots out a pefectly good carb.
Here’s an idea: let’s refine and burn the oil, and let’s eat the crops. Thus reducing cost of both. Nah, the greenies know best - what was I thinking.
In this case the EU folks are far ahead of our great “thinkers” in Congress. Bob Dole used to be known as the Senator from Archer Daniels Midland. Chuck Grassley (among others) is now the Senator from the Ethanol Lobby.
The best biofuel as sustainable and non-destructive to agribusiness and the economy is algae based biodiesel. The oil companies are quietly putting a lot of research and testing into this because it has huge advantages over other biofuels.
To start with, it is a product of scale that can work almost year around in the US, anywhere south of the Mason-Dixon, and to a little lesser extent north of there. It can be work in otherwise barren land, using grey (non-potable) water, which it can recycle.
Even before it produces its first drop of biodiesel it is profitable, because it consumes both industrial CO2 and nitrous oxide (NOx) gases, which are very expensive for industry to dispose of otherwise.
It can also be low overhead, using acres of shallow, lined accordion trenches, covered with “self cleaning” laminate, with cheap bubbler hose on the bottom to pump the gases into the water.
The hardest part is probably keeping the water at the optimal temperature for maximum production. In any event, the algae can be 50% vegetable oil by weight, which is squeezed out of it, then mixed with ethanol, with lye as a catalyst to produce biodiesel. Filter it, then add 1% petroleum diesel as a preservative, and there you are.
Meanwhile, there are diesel engines everywhere, from motorcycles to cars to trains and ships that with minor modifications will use biodiesel. So no need for new types of vehicles.
Producing biodiesel this way slashes the price of gasoline and home heating oil, which are no longer in direct competition with diesel.
imho they think they have given enough lead time for algae based biofuels to take off and replace the others.
Since this new program doesn’t start until 2020—I would tend to agree.
There are some major build outs in algae biofuels slated to take place in the next 5 years that will supply sufficient proof of concept to lead to much much larger investments/buildouts by 2020.
Environmentalism? Hurting and killing poor people since the 1960’s
imho the best of breed of the algae biofuel companies are actually bacteria based. Do a google search on Joule Unlimited
Anybody who thought that “alternative energy” wasn’t a “pump and dump” stock scheme wasn’t paying attention.
Regarding all government created “Industries, jobs, ad nauseam”, here is the real, harsh, truth for the voters:
IF THE FREE MARKET HASN’T DONE IT, GOVERNMENT SHOULDN’T DO IT.
The above applies to large and small scale “projects”. America built three trans-continental railroads. Two had government support, one did not.
Which one was a financial success?
The one without government support.
Lesson over.
The final exam will be waiting for you in every voting booth you will ever enter.
Your children hope you remember the above lesson, because they will pay for your vote.
imho they think they have given enough lead time for algae based biofuels to take off and replace the others.
Since this new program doesn’t start until 2020—I would tend to agree.
There are some major build outs in algae biofuels slated to take place in the next 5 years that will supply sufficient proof of concept to lead to much much larger investments by 2020.
The often touted Brazilian use of sugar cane ethanol as a motor fuel overlooks that to meet the demand for ethanol virgin rainforest is being burned and planted with sugar cane. So much for saving the rain forest.