Ethanol?

[OzJavelin]

Found this thread on the American Motors forum I frequent. Yes, I understand some of the issues involving mass production of Ethanol and some of the problems it causes in some vehicles .. but I thought a lot of the historic info detailed was interesting (if it's true?). Like this:

" .. When the car came into being as a major US player, there were basicly 3 main fuels available: Natural Gas, Ethanol, Gasoline ( this is non-diesel motors, ofcourse they had peanut oil, biodiesel, and hydrocarbon diesel at this time as well). It also should be remembered that electric cars were gaining in populatiry at the turn of the century as well but technology of the time made them inpractical. That left the IC as the technology of choice. Now initially ethanol was winning the war as far as primary fuel of choice. The reason. Most car owners lived on farms our out in the country. At that time gas stations just didnt exist and the oil pipelines also didnt exist in any form like today. Brew at home and drive. Need to fill up stop by a local farm, have dinner with them, socialize and fill up. However the oil companies made a bold move into the govt and got subsidizing for laying the foundation of the modern fuel delivery system. This caused gasoline to become more redaliy available and at the time, cheaper because we were not growing the super crops of today. Being, cheap, plenteful, and available made gas win out in the end. .. "

http://www.amcforums.com/cgi-bin/yab...5886345;start=

[Sourbastard]

I can seriously see Ethanol/Methanol being a viable alternative to petrol in the future. It will require a great deal of research to get it to the same efficiency levels as petrol products, but as a long term fuel, it easily betters LPG, CNG and Hybrid alternatives.

Its also quite simple to make from the things our agricultural sectors throw away every year, excess fruit, straw, unused sugar cane, literally anything organic with starch can make ethanol. In the states they have a product called E85, which is 85% ethanol and 15% "Gasolene" which seems to run well in many vehicles there. Some are even being produced specifically for E85, or being E85 compatible.

http://www.e85fuel.com/index.php

check em out.

And I forgot to mention, its 105 Octane(MON I believe) for all the Higher Octane so must be better freaks.