E85
Ethanol, is only sold in the USA as a blend of 85%
ethanol and 15% gasoline. To be stored, transported or sold as E100, then the ATF would tax it as alcohol. If you know what you are doing, you can
distill the 15% of toxic gasoline off of your E85 available at around 2000 stations Nation wide and use the same
fuel Henry Ford filled every Model T with that rolled off the assembly
line in 1908. Did you know that the Model T was painted with soy based
paint? The convertible tops and seat fabric were made from corn stalk
fiber. The plastic for the knobs and steering wheel were made from corm
oil plastic. Ford called his corn oil plastic furferall, today they call it PLA.
Liquid
biofuels are great because they pour into our existing infrastructure.
But we have to be realistic about how finite they are. Making them and
using them locally to displace petroleum is great. However, the longer
we hold on to this liquid fuel addiction that has been bestowed upon
the citizens of the world, the harder it will be to pull out the nozzle later.
As recently as 2003, the bulk of corn production in the US was to feed cows and pigs. However, cows and pigs can not digest the sugar in the corn, in fact it is a poison to cows with their short digestive track. So, it is far better to feed the cows and pigs the leftover mash, or the distillers grains from the ethanol production. Feeding cows and pigs the mash is actually more nutritionaly beneficial to them, it takes less mass to provide better substanance, and we get the alcohol as a bonus to fuel some of our cars. During the brewing process, CO2 is captured and sold to the cola botteling plants. Methane is produced and can be used to generate power. The waste heat from the power production is and can be used to dry out the incoming materila in preperation for brewing. Is not it a great circle? We just have to be realistic about how finite the resource is to make alcohol from, espically just considering the waste crops as a source. We can not make enough alcohol from any source to supply all the cars with ethanol for fuel. We can however make enough to suply every car with a couple tanks full of ethanol fuel per year. If we primarliy utilize methane for our gasoline and diesel engines, while retaining their liquid fuel ability, then we can make enough ethanol and biodiesel to satisfy the countrys fleet of vehicles with cleaner, safer, less expensive, domestic fuels and energy resources.