Well, Brazile is second in etoh production only to us. They are just more efficient at it as they do it with less land. This is mostly due to their crop use as they can grow sugar cain in quantity and we mostly use corn. It takes more corn and land to produce what we do. They still use oil over there but now they can procude enough oil to meed their demands with out importation. Their heavy duty transport still relies on oil with some ethanol but their light transport and personal transport use etoh. There are several good articles on them if you do a Google search on Ethanol fuels.

Jeff

 

Redneck, I do realize that MPG is less than 87, and I do know all the pros and cons of using corn instead of 90% oil- but I have many relatives in Iowa & Nebraska and choose to support them not foreign oil producing countries - if I had a choice, I still would go ahead with conversion.

 

From your remarks I assume you have a E-85 vehicle or have personally seen the difference in fuel economy? My dad says he lost 2 MPG in his Ford P/U but will continue to use it. He pays .50 cents less on average per gallon. I think we have enough corn to use here in the states- we don't need to feed the world. This could be used in conjunction with other cellulose types of alternatives. Remember farmers may eventually start growing other types of crops such as sugar cane in Brazil ti minimize impact. We just got our first station offering E-85, prior to this one the closest one was Tucson, about 100 miles from me. My family is in Iowa and they keep adding pumps there. As far as the hype on groceries- its simple higher fuel costs are the main reason for the spike- not corn based E-85. Everything you buy cost more.

 

$2.70 for ethanol and $3.85 for 85 unleaded here in Fort Fun.

(Yeah, our low grade is 85 octane since we start at 5000 feet and only go up from there. The JK runs fine on it.)

 

My wife drives an E-85 Chevy malibu maxx and yes we have run a few tanks through it. I live in Illinois which is corn country as well and we have several stations offering the E-85 at an average of about .35 a gallon cheaper. It costs more for us to burn than regular gas. If you do more research you'll find that many of the government mandates for making the E-85 available have been put on hold. And for good reason. To say that the corn being used for fuel isn't raising prices means you don't live around livestock. You can't give a pig away to be fed out because you can no longer afford to feed it. It's actually cheaper to buy it from the store now. And none of the ethanol HERE comes from anything other than corn. And by the way, I don't want to feed the world but our politicians do. It's takes just as much energy to make ethanol from corn as it produces!!! Talk about a huge wast!! A few farmers are making quick money now and everyone assumes it's good for all of us. It sounded good at first, so the politicians have forced it down our throats. Do some research and you'll find there is much back peddling going on now. If we can grow a plant with a positive energy coefficient such as Sugar can, or beets then the next step is to redesign our engines including small engines IE lawn mowers, weedeaters, ect. Your crazy if you think the engines we run today are actually going to last using all that alcholol.

 

Sugar beets is the answer.

The Germans grow them, so should we.

 

Heck 30 years ago I remember them in California in the UCR fields

 

What I like about e85 is that if everyone were to use it, we'd practically eliminate our need for foreign oil. Brazil did it and it's working out well for them. Unfortunately here in the US, we've got too many politicians getting hand outs from big oil and I highly doubt we'll ever be able to go e85 completely. Oil companies are making record profits while we all pay far more at the pump, then they turn around and tell us it's not their greed, it's foreign oil costs more per barrel, which is why we are all paying so much more.

If I could get e85 I'd use it, just to stick it to the man. lol

 

Well we need to use different crops than corn, or the man you're sticking it to is the livestock farmer and the consumer of all grain fed meats. Chicken, beef, pork!!!

 

Oh I agree with you on the corn, as it's not very efficient and it would impact the farmers. Frankly, I'd support getting sugar cane from Cuba or anywhere else if it will cut down on our reliance on foreign oil.