[AT] E85/Flex Fuel conversions

[charlie hill]

I saw a farm show on RFDTV this week about bio-mass ethanol.  They were 
saying that researchers are working on new Soy Bean varieties.  In the past 
the trend has been toward growing beans with small plants and lots of bean 
pods.  Now they are trying to develop plants that will grow maybe as much as 
6 or 8 feet high so the bio-mass will be available for ethanol production.

Charlie
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Henry Miller" <hank at millerfarm.com>
To: "Antique tractor email discussion group" <at at lists.antique-tractor.com>
Sent: Saturday, February 03, 2007 1:30 PM
Subject: Re: [AT] E85/Flex Fuel conversions


> On Saturday 03 February 2007 11:39, Mike wrote:
>> I saw a program on Discovery or some such channel about how a country
>> in South America, Brazil I think, was going to be completely
>> independant from foreign oil in a couple of years. They will be
>> making all their fuel from sugar cane alcohol. They had started
>> phasing out oil years ago, and are now to a point where they can do
>> completely without it. It sure seems like we could do the same thing
>> with all the corn we produce.
>
> Brazil became free of foreign oil last year.  However this was more 
> because of
> their own oil drilling than ethanol.   The US will probably produce more
> ethanol this year than they will (but who knows, we are both building 
> plants
> so fast that it wouldn't take much to change things)
>
> They have a large advantage over corn: they get a bout 3 times as much 
> ethanol
> from an acre as we do.   They also use much less fuel total.    In the end
> the US cannot grow enough corn to replace oil.
>
> We can grow enough to replace oil IF we use algae (mostly biodiesel) and
> cellulose, but both of those are just barely out of the lab, and won't be
> ready for mass production for a few years yet.   (But don't be surprised 
> if
> in a few years you are growing grass not corn)  Algae could replace all 
> the
> fuel we use in the US just on unused desert land in Arizona.   (it turns 
> out
> open ponds don't work for growing the right algae, so evaporation won't be 
> a
> problem)
>
> I would suggest that nobody buy a NEW (if you buy used you of course have 
> to
> live with what you can find) car/tractor that cannot run on either E85 or
> biodiesel.   I can't tell you how things will turn out, but you don't have 
> to
> be a genius to see that most of the places with oil to spare are not our
> friends.  Combine that we consistante warnings about the greenhouse effect
> (something I don't want to get into) and you can be sure if the
> ethanol/biodiesel industries ever start meeting the promise and oil will 
> get
> expensive.   Those who buy new cars will want to be prepared should that
> happen.
>
> Note that you might get lucky by doing nothing.   The ethanol industry is
> experimenting with butanol, which appears like it can replace gasoline
> directly in any car.   It appears that the only reason biodiesel isn't
> approved at 100% in today's diesel engines is there is some bad quality
> biodiesel out there that nobody wants to be responsible for.
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