Ethanol will never replace gasoline. While it can match gasoline's efficiency through increased compression, it cannot be produced in large enough quantities to sustain our current appetite
and growing demand.
The race to biofuels is only going to lead to food competition and environmental degradation. If you enjoy the thought of rainforests, virgin deserts, and open coastlines you should plan your trip now. Man has a propensity of defecating on his own doorstep.
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Originally Posted by diesel_john
Any new source of energy is bad because people actually think, they can burn as much as they feel like.
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I couldn't have summed up the issue any better myself. The solution isn't to switch from heroine to cocaine, it's to lose the addiction. Big Oil -> Big Agribusiness -> Big Electricity gets us nowhere.
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Originally Posted by diesel_john
Legislation is already starting against wood burning in some states. You need to invent a way to extract the energy without creating smoke. Any ideas? This is a big one. Did you know you can heat wood in a chamber and burn the gas in an engine?
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I have two ideas: catalytic converter or masonry heater.
Smoke (i.e. particulate matter) only exists due to incomplete combustion. Most stoves or heaters burn wood at too low of a temperature to get anywhere near complete combustion.
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Originally Posted by dremd
Corn ethanol is certainly not the best, but does have advantages.
The super negative info always assumes that Gasoline just appears, it does not, "production" of gasoline has a HUGE environmental impact in my area.
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That growing black hole called the oceanic dead zone that expands every year in your backyard is not caused by oil...
I would easily guess that on an energy/pollution ratio, gasoline scores extremely high. The extraction, processing, and transportation of oil is among the most efficient of all forms of energy (~98% I believe). It is it's use that is inefficient. The oil sands may be changing that though...
- LostCause