Myth Busters Maybe?
Posted: Sep 21st, '06, 20:08
While watching an episode of Discovery's Myth Busters, I got the hair brained idea that maybe I could, just maybe, get Jamie and Adam to jump on board and "Bust The Myth" of Ethanol Laced Gasoline...
Well, maybe this is too hot a potatoe for the Discovery Channel to chow down on, but what the hell, nothing ventured, nothing gained.
Below is a post that I placed on their forum for "Ideas for Future Shows"
-------------------------------------------------
Ethanol - The Greatest Current Myth
"OK, let's see if Jamie, Adam, & The Discovery Producers are up to a REAL Challenge!
As just about everyone with a car, boat, or other vehicle that is powered by an internal combustion engine knows, ethanol is being blended into our gasoline.
While on the surface this appears to be a good thing, right? It will help reduce our dependance on foreign oil, create less pollutants, and in general make America a more environmentally friendly place, right?
WRONG!!
Points of Interest:
1. Ethanol takes more energy to produce than it returns. A gallon of ethanol requires more than the equivalent fossil fuel to produce than it take to produce a gallon of gasoline.
2. Ethanol is made from grain alcohol. Alcohol and water are attracted to each other and once combined are inseparable. Ethanol blended into gasoline is subject to a condition called phase separation. Phase separation occurs when the alcohol absorbs enough water to literally fall out of the blend with gasoline. This leaves the consumer with two distinct fluids in the fuel tank, an alcohol and water layer below a very low octane gasoline layer above. Neither of which will operate an engine.
3. Alcohol is a strong solvent and attacks many components commonly found in just about every engine and fuel container we have. Automobiles, power boats, lawn mowers, weed eaters, motorcycles, ATVs, and many more items. Ethanol blended fuels, even at concentrations as low as 10% are already raising havoc.
Even 10% ethanol is reacting with fiberglass fuel tanks in many boats. 85% ethanol blend, (E85), is the projected "fuel of the future". E85 will even attack aluminum!
4. Oil companies will not even blend the ethanol laced fuels at the refinery level because the blend will attack the pipelines used to deliver gasoline around the country. Ethanol must be blended at the distributor level, meaning that it must be trucked in from ethanol plants and added to the gasoline tanker trucks. More wasted fossil fuel being used.
5. Ethanol laced gasoline blends only a 30 - 60 day shelf life. Once the shelf life expires, the fuel on hand is no longer good and must be disposed of. Yeah, where? What about the ruined fiberglass gas tanks in many boats. Disposed to landfills? More energy being wasted.
What about the engines that are destroyed because ethanol laced fuels are attacking either directly or indirectly? More landfill material?
This list can, and maybe should, go on and on. But for the sake of limiting this post to at least a manageable read, I'll stop here for the time being.
The insipid crux of this issue is that we as the American public are being fed a load of manure all the while that we're being convinced that it's a gourmet meal!
So come on Adam and Jamie, let's bust a really important myth...
Sincerely,
Captain Patrick McCrary"
Well, maybe this is too hot a potatoe for the Discovery Channel to chow down on, but what the hell, nothing ventured, nothing gained.
Below is a post that I placed on their forum for "Ideas for Future Shows"
-------------------------------------------------
Ethanol - The Greatest Current Myth
"OK, let's see if Jamie, Adam, & The Discovery Producers are up to a REAL Challenge!
As just about everyone with a car, boat, or other vehicle that is powered by an internal combustion engine knows, ethanol is being blended into our gasoline.
While on the surface this appears to be a good thing, right? It will help reduce our dependance on foreign oil, create less pollutants, and in general make America a more environmentally friendly place, right?
WRONG!!
Points of Interest:
1. Ethanol takes more energy to produce than it returns. A gallon of ethanol requires more than the equivalent fossil fuel to produce than it take to produce a gallon of gasoline.
2. Ethanol is made from grain alcohol. Alcohol and water are attracted to each other and once combined are inseparable. Ethanol blended into gasoline is subject to a condition called phase separation. Phase separation occurs when the alcohol absorbs enough water to literally fall out of the blend with gasoline. This leaves the consumer with two distinct fluids in the fuel tank, an alcohol and water layer below a very low octane gasoline layer above. Neither of which will operate an engine.
3. Alcohol is a strong solvent and attacks many components commonly found in just about every engine and fuel container we have. Automobiles, power boats, lawn mowers, weed eaters, motorcycles, ATVs, and many more items. Ethanol blended fuels, even at concentrations as low as 10% are already raising havoc.
Even 10% ethanol is reacting with fiberglass fuel tanks in many boats. 85% ethanol blend, (E85), is the projected "fuel of the future". E85 will even attack aluminum!
4. Oil companies will not even blend the ethanol laced fuels at the refinery level because the blend will attack the pipelines used to deliver gasoline around the country. Ethanol must be blended at the distributor level, meaning that it must be trucked in from ethanol plants and added to the gasoline tanker trucks. More wasted fossil fuel being used.
5. Ethanol laced gasoline blends only a 30 - 60 day shelf life. Once the shelf life expires, the fuel on hand is no longer good and must be disposed of. Yeah, where? What about the ruined fiberglass gas tanks in many boats. Disposed to landfills? More energy being wasted.
What about the engines that are destroyed because ethanol laced fuels are attacking either directly or indirectly? More landfill material?
This list can, and maybe should, go on and on. But for the sake of limiting this post to at least a manageable read, I'll stop here for the time being.
The insipid crux of this issue is that we as the American public are being fed a load of manure all the while that we're being convinced that it's a gourmet meal!
So come on Adam and Jamie, let's bust a really important myth...
Sincerely,
Captain Patrick McCrary"