This is neat and a great find, but frankly...
Nothing comes anywhere near the fuel efficancy and ease of production of Diesel, Bio or Dino. It's crankcase oil for the most part and it's cost is mearly a reflection of a money driven market. All of theis E85 BS is just rediculous and IMO merely a way to justify subsidizing Corn farmers for some odd reason. Where is the technology that they used in WWII Willys?? Thise trucks could run on Kero, Diesel, Petrol and a few others I belive. THAT is technology, Flex fuel is garbage IMO and a complete waste of time IF it detracts from development of the real savior of fuel concerns, Bio-haul.diesel.
RHINO said:
really? i think the most hope would be getting the masses that commute on electric cars or something similar that can be charged at home preferably on renewable elctricity, i mean it is commuting back and forth to work, mostly by ourselves, that seems to be the cause of most auto pollution, and we know americans arent gonna take mass transit and lose all that "freedom"
the most interesting part about the whole alt fuel revolution is that it was already here, most of you prolly know that rudolph diesel built his engine to run on peanut oil, not diesel. and maybe some of you know that the original cars, model t's and stuff ran mostly on sugar beets, not gasoline. wood alcohol was a player also.
there a company in minnesota? thats getting into sugar beets again, i dont remember the numbers but its something like 5 fold what corn can do.
so whats old is new again. i think the high oil prices are what this country needed to start taking alt fuels seriously, its been a grassroots movement for a long time.
Cuople things... Electricity is made with energy from somewhere and it's not always made by Hydro electric
so while electricity is renewable and is coming along with the addition of wind turbines and other sources of "bio collection methods" there is NO FREE ENERGY. Plus, frankly as martin said the complication and relative inefficancy of the battery's used is of concern.
Penut oil is diesel. Diesel is Rudolphs last name. Diesel was the name that was give to the combustion cycle of the engine he designed... Kind of like the Miller cycle engine. The best Alt source that I've found numbers on is Algea. from a production stand point it's amazing, and it's energy yield is almost ten fold that of veg oil. Places like Azizona new mexico and the like could be saving our butts ten fold if big oil would just let the technology evolve.
I'm a bit of a Diesel nut can you tell??? One of my biggest regrets so far is not going to the trouble of getting a 1KZ-T into my Runner instead of the 22RE. I love the 22RE, but I long for the awsome range and the power to dislpacement ratio that the motor would have offered.
Cheers
Dave