Alt fuels stations opening
 

The Gas Station of the Future Just Opened - Businessweek

fyi

There's very few Propel stations around, I put a gallon of E85 in my tank 2 tanks ago to see if it did anything differently (20% ethanol instead of 10).

The problem is that their prices SUCK. 3.85 for a gallon of E85, when 87 gas was 4.59. You have got to be joking me.

One issue with running alcohol in a conventional spark ignited gasoline engine is compression. I think Indy cars run compression ratios around 14-16 to 1. The much higher octane rating of pure alcohol and even E85 allows much higher compression, which means you need to have the engine designed specifically for alcohol. It would be interesting to see if the Mazda SKY-Activ gasoline engine would utilise the higher octane of alcohol.

I wonder what an alcohol-diesel blend would do with the much higher compression of diesels? Just a guess, but you may also run into NOX issues with the higher compression.
I know Brazil has been using alcohol for decades. I wonder if there are engines used there that are designed for alcohol specific use?

regards
Mech

It's not a hydrocarbon-fuel station, but one of our bookstores recently intstalled a "free" electric-vehicle charging station infront of each of their 3 stores here in Tucson. Wasn't able to see if it's for GM, Toyota, or tim-buk-tew tricycles.