By now you've all heard me rant and rave about switching my car to operate on ethanol. Well by golly I've done it. The FlexTek unit I had installed by Alan Braun in Jeff City is a two-stage system. Step one is to add a fuel system treatment that literally plates the metal surfaces of the engine that will come into contact with the ethanol. This is done to prevent the mildly acidic E85 from corroding metal parts in the fuel system. (New Flex Fuel vehicles are made with parts that are already plated.) This additive is guaranteed to protect an engine for 100,000 miles. I'll be shocked if my car is still running when it reaches that point (it will have over 269,000 miles then)- regardless of whether the E85 has corroded anything. The next step is the fuel injector unit which adjusts the air-fuel mix to compensate for the slightly less energy dense ethanol. I have to drive the car with the additives for 2000 miles to allow the plating process to be complete. Then, I can fill 'er up with E85 and "Flip the switch". And the nice thing is that if I am anywhere that E85 is not available, the car will burn regular gas again by flipping the switch back.
But that's not all. As of today, I am an official, card-carrying member of the National Ethanol Vehicle Coalition. This group is an advocacy organization that provides filling stations, refineries, car owners, and the general public with resources and support for the country's inevitable shift to biofuels. Have you noticed the price of gas lately? Did you notice that E85 is now 55 cents per gallon cheaper that regular gas? But that's not a fair comparison. E85 is 105 octane. Super Premium gas is only 93 octane and it costs 75 cents a gallon more than E85. On my 18 gallon fill-ups, I'll be saving over $13!!!!!!!!!!!! E85 fuel that is 10% less efficient but costs 20% less than regular gas seems like a pretty good deal to me. And E85 pollutes less, too.
Don't forget that Missouri farmers make and sell E85. Iran, Russia, Saudi Arabia, and Venezuela are the world's top oil producers. Is E85 hard to find at gas stations? Yes and no. Get on the NEVC website that I have a link to and locate every E85 station in the country. 40 of the 50 states now sell it at at least one location. Are there enough pumps in this country? Not by a long shot. But this economy is driven by consumer demand. I just wrote a letter to the general manager of MFA Oil's Breaktime Convenience Stores requesting that an E85 pump be installed at their Ashland location. I explained to them that Bethany and I each have a Flex Fuel Vehicle (FFV) and that we each fill up about once a week. That works out to over 1500 gallons of E85 that they could sell to just the two of us in one year at that location. I also promised to tell everyone who will listen to switch to E85 and to buy it at Breaktime. If everone buys a FFV the next time they are in the market for a new car, the demand will definitely go up. Even if the price of ethanol rises, it will remain competitive with gas and the money will stay in the local economy- not in the Middle East.
I know I have blogged about all this before, but after 35 years of searching, I have found a cause that I strongly believe in. I may support several other causes, but none get my juices flowing quite like this one. As a member of the NEVC, I plan on being a very vocal proponent of this emerging industry. I may eventually seek a more active role in the organization, but for now I will be content with simply rallying the troops. As a member, I can attend meetings and conferences, voice my concerns, and receive press releases and newsletters. I have also ordered a bunch of bumper stickers and promotional items (at a members-only discount) that will soon adorn our two FFV's singing the praises of E85. I plan to contact FlexTek to see if they would be interested in a marketing campaign in our area encouraging people like us who can't afford a new FFV to convert their used vehicles like I did. Brazil is by all accounts one of the poorest countries on earth, yet they have been installing these conversions in their old cars for over a decade. Every new vehicle sold there is a FFV. (They mandated E100 fuel be sold at every gas station in the country since 1985!) A conversion kit here costs $800 installed, or $650 from the manufacturer. Think about it. Seriously think about it. Oil won't get any cheaper. As demand for gas increases and reserves start to dry up, prices will soar beyond belief. Wars will break out as countries scramble to secure what little oil reserves are left. Economies will crumble. Infrastrucures will disintegrate. We are an oil economy. What will we do when Saudi Arabia, Iran, and Venezuela decide to hoard their dwinling supplies? What will we do when Chinese demand for oil forces OPEC to sell to the highest bidder? Are we prepared to send our sons and daughters off to die in a foreign country so that we can continue to drive our 12-miles-per-gallon SUVs cheaply? How many lives will be lost securing oil for our driving pleasure?
Ethanol is independence. So is electric and hydrogen technology. But those technologies are years away from being viable means to power the majority of automobiles. Ethanol works right now. Ethanol is produced from corn, fast-growing switchgrass, sugar cane, and biomass- all abundantly available. Ethanol is grain alcohol. Imagine if this country had as many ethanol distilleries as it did whiskey, vodka, and rum distilleries. Imagine if we had the infrastucture to transport the fuel throughout the country (pipelines can be corroded by E85). Oh yeah, that's right- we already do. Ethanol has to be shipped in trucks. Hmmmm...so does alcohol for drinking. Yet there's no shortage of that at any gas station in the country. We can be an ethanol and bio-diesel economy within one or two years. Henry Ford and Mr. Diesel (can't think of his first name) designed their engines to run on bio fuels. Ford's first cars all operated on ethanol. It was only after the big oil tycoons forced the country to use gas that Ford reluctantly allowed his cars to be run on gas. Diesel engines were first operated on bio diesel. Again, only after big oil changed the face of our economy did Diesel allow his invention to run on petroleum based fuel. Its amazing how time (and corporations) erase our memory in this country.
For you, its something to think about. For me, its something to believe in.
6 comments:
I'm going to make a car that runs on Hugs and Kisses, so I can stop by your house every day for a refuel.
Since ethanol supports farmers- even Violent Farmers, feel free to stop by for free hugs and kisses, Paulie.
Glad you made the conversion. Keep skeptical, though, as various studies argue that it actually take more oil to produce a gallon of ethanol than it does to produce a gallon of oil (because of the tractors, the fertilizers, the distilling, and the transportation - all more complex than the oil infrastructure). It's not cheaper because it's more efficient; it's cheaper because it's subsidized. Maybe that net energy equation will tip more squarely for ethanol in the future. Currently, though, producing ethanol requires high amounts of oil, coal, and natural gas. But even if that keeps up, we could make those industrial centers 'cleaner' faster than we can tailpipes, so the net CO2 could still be less, no? Sorry, just rambling thoughts...
Actually, most of the most cited studies of the net energy equation were published in the early 1980's. I found a website that shows figures from 2001 in which they claim ethanol production now results in a net energy rating of 30%. In other words, modern ethanol production processes enable ethanol to make 30% more energy than it takes to process and distribute it.
Thanks for playing, bro. Please try again.
Ok, I'll keep playing. I didn't mean to say its net energy was a loss, I am saying that it currently doesn't quite match regular old gasoline. It's a comparative issue, not an intrinsic issue (as it used to be). But don't get defensive - I'm still a believer. It just seems a bit more work will be necessary to make the production, distribution, and consumption infrastructure optimized for ethanol so that it beats out petroleum in its efficiency.
I had been reading that it's still much better for the environment because the net effects spit less carbon dioxide out, but a new Stanford study shows that it actually puts some other pretty harmful ozone contaminates out there that petrol doesn't.
So let's all just get electric cars and get our electricity from solar sources, and then it'll all be good.
Finally, an intellectual conversation on this blog! It only took two years.
What your Stanford researcher forgot to mention is that ethanol produces more cabon dioxide rather than the poisonous carbon monoxide produced by burning gasoline. Plants and trees absorb the CO2 produced by burning E85 and then release oxygen, thus improving air quality. Your distinguished colleague failed to account for this process in his computer model.
Also, refer to this quote from the American Lung Association website:
"E85 is environment-friendly. It has the highest oxygen content of any fuel available today, allowing it to burn more completely (cleaner) than conventional gasoline. E85 contains 80% less gum-forming compounds, like the olefins found in gasoline. Production and use of E85 results in a nearly 30% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. Many major U.S. cities suffer from unhealthy levels of smog (ground-level ozone). E85 may be able to help. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency reports that high-blend ethanol fuels can significantly reduce harmful exhaust emissions such as carbon monoxide (-40%) and smog-forming pollutants (-15%)."
What else ya got, solar-electric boy?
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