US and Washington State Legislative mandates and subsidies for ethanol have contributed to a global disaster. Not only is the forced using of food for fuel causing massive starvation on a global scale, it is causing governments to teeter on the brink. As of 4/16/08 40 countries were listed by the UN as at risk of collapse because food prices have climbed 80% in 3 years. The World Food Program claims 100 million more people are at risk of starvation. And many in the world blame the US ethanol mandate and subsidy policy for most of the problem. It will get worse. Many of the starving are in Muslim countries. You can bet that the hungry and disenfranchised Muslims will be an easy recruiting target of Islamists. And guess who will foot the bill for bailing out collapsed economies? We just shipped $10 million to Haiti when their PM resigned over the food shortages. That's just the start...
Ethanol is a solvent that has almost no redeeming value as a fuel.
And I might add that ethanol stored in old underground storage tanks are likely to leak into ground water.
From the Ford Motor Company website:
https://www.fleet.ford.com/showroom/environmental_vehicles/BiodieselTechnology.asp
“The World-Wide Fuel Charter, a compilation of fuel quality requirements endorsed by the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, the European Automobile Manufacturers Association (ACEA), the Engine Manufacturers Association, the Japanese Automobile Manufacturers Association and a number of other automobile manufacturer trade associations around the world, does not endorse fuels that contain more than 5% biodiesel for fuels sold in WWFC defined category 1-3 areas (most of the world). International Truck and Engine Company has stated that the use of biodiesel in their engines - some of which are in Ford products - at greater than 5% concentration, is solely at the discretion and risk of the customer. (read that as “warranty does not cover…”)
Use of Biodiesel in Ford Vehicles:
Fuels containing no more than 5% biodiesel may be used in Ford diesel powered vehicles. Consistent with WWFC (World-Wide Fuel Charter) category 1-3, “Fatty Acid Methyl Esters (FAME) used in commercial fuel must meet both the EN 14214 and ASTM D 6751 specifications”.
There are still some unresolved technical concerns with the use of biodiesel at concentration greater than 5%. Some of the concerns are:
Requires special care at low temperatures to avoid excessive rise in viscosity and loss of fluidity
Storage is a problem due to higher then normal risk of microbial contamination due to water absorption as well as a higher rate of oxidation stability which creates insoluble gums and sediment deposits
Being hygroscopic, the fuel tends to have increased water content, which increases the risk of corrosion
Biodiesel tends to cause higher engine deposit formations
The methyl esters in biodiesel fuel may attack the seals and composite materials used in vehicle fuel systems
It may attack certain metals such as zinc, copper based alloys, cast iron, tin, lead, cobalt, and manganese
It is an effective solvent, and can act as a paint stripper, whilst it will tend to loosen deposits in the bottom of fuel tanks of vehicles previously run on mineral diesel
Ford believes that it is unlikely that the emission benefits of biodiesel will be sufficient to achieve Tier 2 emission standards with out catalysts and particulate filters. Ford is working aggressively on technologies, including engine improvements, new catalysts and particulate filters that will remove HC, CO, NOx and soot from diesel exhaust. Renewable fuels or blends containing renewable components can help reduce the total lifecycle CO2 impact and may be used when available, but they are not the key step to achieving Tier 2 emission standards. “
Who better to acknowledge some of the biofuel problems than a leading biofuel maker Amyris, which according to their website "is developing a gasoline substitute that contains more energy than ethanol, will result in lower cost and less polluting biofuel blends, and is fully compatible with today's cars and the existing petroleum infrastructure. We are also developing a diesel substitute that can achieve lower costs and much greater scale than vegetable oil based biodiesels. Our next generation biodiesel is inherently stable in cold temperatures and does not break down during storage and transport like conventional biodiesel." So this illustrates they likely are working on propanol, and trying to solve the biodiesel problems.
Please note that I am a very strong proponent of bioengineering, energy self sustainment, and fuel from renewable sources. However, I strongly believed the world adopted the wrong fuel in ethanol and the wrong feedstock to make it because of political pressure that was not born of science and common sense.
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The ethanol policy is based upon fear – fear of running out of fuel – fear of global warming – fear of destroying the Earth. All are wrong.
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Comments and Actions from around the world:
Lester Brown of the Earth Policy Institute said U.S. biofuel policy has "become one of the worst foreign policy issues in our history."
Texas Gov. Rick Perry on Friday sent a letter to U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Stephen L. Johnson requesting the 50 percent waiver, saying that the increased price of corn is damaging Texas' energy and beef industries.
General Mills CEO, Kendall Powell, "The main reason for rising prices, of course, is the surge in demand from China and India. Hundreds of millions of people are joining the middle class each year, and that means they want to eat more and better food. A secondary reason has been the growing demand for ethanol as a fuel additive. That’s soaking up some of the corn supply"
"Rising global food prices have hit few places as hard as Afghanistan, where the cost of wheat flour has shot up 76 percent in three months, fueling anger against the US backed government of President Hamid Karzai. In the volatile south, officials fear it could boost recruitment for the Taliban insurgency." - AP
There is no shortage of oil in the US. The US has 2 trillion barrels of high quality shale oil in Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming, and 800 billion barrels of that are recoverable. The 2005 Rand Institute Study for the USGS said that the oil should may be recoverable at $20-30/barrel. New in situ thermal extraction technology also will be able to provide the oil at much less environmental cost than the current Canadian oil sands projects. Meanwhile we must tap into the ANWR oil fields on the Alaskan North Slope. Most of Washington's oil comes from Alaska and the current Pruedoe Bay fields are running low.
In fact, total global oil reserves keep going up because more oil keeps being found in areas not previously explored.
We should encourage the development of the ANWR field quickly so at to save our economy. And if you think CO2 is the problem, a study