Offshoreonly.com

Offshoreonly.com (https://www.offshoreonly.com/forums/)
-   General Boating Discussion (https://www.offshoreonly.com/forums/general-boating-discussion-51/)
-   -   E85 85% Corn Alcohol (ethanol) (https://www.offshoreonly.com/forums/general-boating-discussion/180994-e85-85%25-corn-alcohol-ethanol.html)

TKF Chicago 03-03-2008 12:22 PM

I think I mentioned this several times. We do not need corn for enthanol. You can produce it from algae, weeds or any plant material. It's all around us, no special crops needed. It should'nt impact are food production.

dean51267 03-03-2008 12:34 PM


Originally Posted by TKF Chicago (Post 2469341)
I think I mentioned this several times. We do not need corn for enthanol. You can produce it from algae, weeds or any plant material. It's all around us, no special crops needed. It should'nt impact are food production.

agreed, but the issues is the sugar content... algae has less sugar than corn, so it takes more to make the ethanol...

it also means the fixed cost is higher because you have more volume of product necessary to create the finished product.

Until we get serious about genetically altered plants, so they have large amounts of sugar and yeast growing in the plant together, so a simply production process can start the reaction to create ethanol, we will not have cost effective ethanol. The math simply does not work.

It is always easy to point to someone else and say "you should do more" but we are literally up against the laws of mathematics on this.

So we go back to the issue, enviromental gains, or economic gains... unfortunately we have to make a choice....

TKF Chicago 03-03-2008 12:38 PM


Originally Posted by dean51267 (Post 2469329)
Some of us have seen refineries and drilling ops, some here even work on them...... please do not imply ignorance where there is none.....

the anti-oil extremist are simply cutting off their nose to spite their own face... oil companies generally clean up after themselves today... 20 years ago was different, but now it is not then...

Bottom line, let China build 30 refineries and we will be just as much beholding to them as we are OPEC now. So it may come down to feel good about some place 99.99% of the world will never see not having a refinery and then feel horrible later with gasoline price that wrecks our economy, or we can feel a little pain knowing that frozen wasteland has an oil well on it but we are moving towards energy independence...

We need to drill in ANWAR, and build100 nuke plants too... over supplying the market is the answer for shortages of such a important part of our economy...

I understand your point. I have worded that strongly. Are oil companies are reasonably clean until someone screws up. It is still only a temporary fix. Nuclear energy is great, but we have to bury it's waste in special containers. Out of sight, out of mind. Let are kids or their kids deal with it.

dean51267 03-03-2008 12:42 PM


Originally Posted by TKF Chicago (Post 2469377)
I understand your point. I have worded that strongly. Are oil companies are reasonably clean until someone screws up. It is still only a temporary fix. Nuclear energy is great, but we have to bury it's waste in special containers. Out of sight, out of mind. Let are kids or their kids deal with it.

only other option is starve our economy while the rest of the world races past... we would have ended much of mankinds problems we know of in the world were it not for over regulation of our economy.... we seem to want to slow our economy to the absolute slowest point we can, and pray no one will catch up....

no one LIKES nuke power, but we ALL like turning on the lights...

TKF Chicago 03-03-2008 12:59 PM

Forget about E85 fuel for a while. What about Bio-Diesel. Plant oils are a lot easier to produce than plant alcohol. You could get free fuel in back of your local restaurant in the form of waste cooking oil. You could fill up your Diesel powered Cigarette for practically pennies on the dollar. I like the test on the diesel powered Nortech in Powerboat. Mr. Teague is experimenting with diesels as well.

Bio-Diesel could be another thread.

I come from a family of gear heads, engineers and biologist. I am stuck in the middle.
It's interesting to hear what knowledge and views we have. Thats how we learn.

TKF Chicago 03-03-2008 01:08 PM


Originally Posted by dean51267 (Post 2469386)
only other option is starve our economy while the rest of the world races past... we would have ended much of mankinds problems we know of in the world were it not for over regulation of our economy.... we seem to want to slow our economy to the absolute slowest point we can, and pray no one will catch up....

no one LIKES nuke power, but we ALL like turning on the lights...

Or we could race past the rest of the world with cleaner, better burning fuel. Come on! You mean to tell me we can send people to the moon and outer space but we can't find a clean alternative to fossil fuel.


All times are GMT -5. The time now is 07:06 AM.


Copyright © 2024 MH Sub I, LLC dba Internet Brands. All rights reserved. Use of this site indicates your consent to the Terms of Use.