That good GM. Ethanol has it place but not when it is taken from food stock like corn.

How long will it take the auto makers to realise that substituting Ethanol for gasoline isn’t going to solve anything.

Ethanol produces less energy and more pollution. We are better off making bio-diesel from used cooking grease. God knows there is tons of that stuff around the USA. McDonalds… BK… KFC… Jack in the Box… Bojangles… I could go on. It dosen’t take too much to turn that stuff into diesel.

Not to mention the fact that the vast majority of cars on the road today are 5-10 years old and won’t even run on ethanol. You aren’t solving anything unless someone wants to pony up the cash to buy millions of people ethanol compatible cars.

Even if I had an ethanol capable car… there isn’t a station that sells it within 50 miles of me.

The American public needs… deserves… something to end this gas crisis now… not 10 years from now.

I just filled up with E-85 @ $2.29 a gallon. The regular 87 here is $3.59. This new technology sounds great, but I could honestly give a rats ass if Mexican taco prices go up as a result of the current process.

mmmmmm….tacos

Oy, I’m sick of GM and Ford touting this whole ethanol thing. Now I will admit that ethanol is a great way to boost power in a performance car or a competition car. The higher octane rating helps with proper detonation but let’s face it, we’re dealing with production cars here. I think that biodiesel is gonna be the way to go. A higher energy density AND a cheaper production cost is going to greatly help especially in terms of fuel economy. Now of course they’ll have to rework emissions systems but who cares?!?! It’s a great substitute that’s also totally feasible, but who knows. I mean hell, Mercedes and VW have their diesels made to run on biodiesel as long as it meets certain requirements. I’m personally waiting for the A4 TDi to make it to the states so I can get one and start making my biodiesel with my friend.

“Not to mention the fact that the vast majority of cars on the road today are 5-10 years old and won’t even run on ethanol.”

Which is why GM is going in this business so guess who’s cars you are going to have to buy? GM is the largest manufacturer of ethanol compatible cars and we wonder why??? Profit, money that’s all it’s about.

I know guys. Ethanol isn’t the solution but would your rather pay $4 for regular gasoline? or $5 for diesel or $2 for Ethanol

Yeah it gets decreased mileage but I’d gladly pay $2-$3 for Ethanol more than what it’s costing to pay for gas and diesel, hmm plus that 103 octane, my car is going to fly!

Ethanol sucks. Gas prices have NOT gone down at all. When prices fluctuate because of greedy ass traders and investors and SPECULATION instead of the supply and demand idea, no alternative fuel is going to suppress GREEDINESS! Ethanol= worse gas mileage + corrosive => COMPLETE BULL****! Give me the Sunoco 110 leaded anyday.

No more tacos! Now all the world will be starving so our fuel smells like freedom fries.

Well if people want the increased power they’re gonna have to have high compression engines which GM really doesn’t make right now. Now you can go for the ZR1, but that’s not a car that everyone’s gonna be driving. If they can make a good variable compression engine then they’re gonna be doing pretty good. Something like the diesotto.

People want higher MPG, lower fuel bills, lower food costs, and independence from oil. Ethanol provides half of these and if they ever prove this new celluistic process it provides 75% of what people want. There seems a lot of talk but is it proven?

cookie4me agreed, the use of Ethanol is still new technology. Hard to say what it could do in 3 to 5 years. The big thing about Ethanol is that it keeps America from being so dependent on anti-freedom countries in the Middle East, which to me is pretty important in todays world.
The cost of food prices world wide is ridiculous to blame on U.S. farmers producing corn for it’s use. Corn is grown in other places too in case no one knew that. It has produced many jobs in this country as well as brought farmers back out of the brink of disaster financially.
No one will ever make an enviromentalist happy.

Ethanol is a big part of the fuel answer. The main law that needs to be enacted is that Dried Distillers Grain (DDG) has to be in all animal feedstocks. This country and others have been wasting corn, wheat, and oats for years on beef cows and chickens. DDG is 4 times more efficiant than corn to add mass to beef cows than raw corn. So, if it was law, well part of a national energy policy, to include DDG in feedstocks, we would see ethanol plants popping up near feedlots everywhere. We get ethanol for autos, and a better feedstock for the animals as a byproduct of the production of ethanol. It sounds so simple, but the farm lobbyists and oil companies will fight it tooth and nail. Biodiesel has major challenges with the EPA. Biodiesel has water and organics in it, so the quality and content of it varies from plant to plant, region to region. High pressure fuel systems have problems with more than B-10, so auto manufactorers cannot predict their warrenty costs…they do not like biodiesel. Although the first bold auto company that can certify b-100 for EPA and give it a full 100k warrenty will be my choise for a new diesel.

Ethanol is a reasonable solution for the short term (50 years) needs of this country and there’s no reason it shouldn’t be further researched and developed. The only mistake people have made in the US is using corn to make it. Ethanol can be made from pretty much any plant-based organic matter. Although our ultimate goal should be the eventual widespread adoption of fuel cells… the fact remains that such is many years away and will require the building of an entirely new infrastructure, while the infrastructure for ethanol is already here. Again… for the next few decades, ethanol is a very attractive alternative to importing massive amounts of foreign oil. Ethanol doesn’t have to produce quite as much power per weight as gasoline because we’re going to eventually see it in conjunction with hybrid drivetrains… isn’t the Volt going to be E85 capable? E85 already costs less per gallon, so combine that with upcoming cars that will be able to drive X-number of miles without using any fuel at all and the savings will be phenomenal….

It’s cool that it can be produced without the vast cornfields. I’m unaware of the claimed, “increased” polution over regular gas, so I can’t comment on that. I do feel that the food price increase, though claimed to be because of biofuel, really isn’t. This is the same **** they hand us when it comes to gas prices. “There was a tornado in Kansas last night that hit 4 homes, therefore prices per barrel of crude oil must go up to $120.” I can’t help but feel like it’s all bull****. I think those industry folks sit back and wait for some bull**** excuse to increase revenue.

Personally, I think Hemp’s the way to go. Or just a manufacturing process using corn stalks, etc., put more money back into the farmers pockets for their “waste” and create a stable market.

The way it’s going now, it’s driving the price of feed way up, but not putting out a lot. I think ethanol will make for about 5% of our total consumption in the future, which isn’t bad considering a few million barrels of gasoline saved, but not the big solution everones expecting.

If we could get 5% of our vehicles running on ethanol and methanol, 5% running on renewable energy, and 20% running on forms of diesel (regular, biodiesel, etc.), then I think we’d be better off for the next few years. Almost every new GM model will run on ethanol, and many of the older Taurus’s will run off of methanol.

I don’t see much of that happening. Diesel is higher than gasoline for no reason to be found, people lining their pockets will still push for corn based ethanol, and renewable energy is possible, but a weary long term investment. With total rebates I could power my whole house on solar, and it would cost me about 25k to install and buy all the parts needed. If you don’t plan on living there for long, and the slumping house markets, there’s more wood to add to the fire.

hateful- It produces about the same CO2, but other pollutants are much higher.
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The truckers need to go on strike.

^^ JJC… Hemp seed would be perfect for the production of biodiesel, but I don’t necessarily agree with you that hemp itself should be used as the plant base for ethanol… The world is a much better place when people wrap it up into a doob and smoke it - not so much when they ferment it into alcohol…

AMGoff- It was used during WW2, and nobody smoked, or drank hemp based fuel then. I don’t know if it’s a substitute for diesel however, I thought you could use it in a petrol engine. Hemp could also be put to great use in paper, it has been before, and no, school children won’t be munching on it in the middle of class- it’s not quite the same thing.

JJC… as far as the diesel goes, I was referring to the hemp seed oil which could be easily modified for biodiesel use. From a pure production standpoint, it would prove far better logistically to use the seed oil for diesel than it would be to use the actual plant matter for ethanol conversion… I forget the exact figure, but I believe over half of the seeds weight consists of the essential oil. Actually… I don’t know how deep your research has gone with regard to hemp… but it’s all around a pretty miraculous substance (and not just for its illicit properties either). This is plant which we can pretty much find use for every single part of it - Regardless of how peoples feelings towards its recreational uses, all of the active constituents found in the flowering part of the plant have vast, genuine medical uses… the “meat” of the plant, in other words the fibrous parts have long been touted for their durability which is why rope has been made from it for centuries and in fact, if properly processed can be as supple as cotton while also being ten times more durable. Even more amazing is the nutritional value of the plant - more specifically the seeds. One of the final research papers for the dietetics/nutritional science half of my double bachelors focused on the overall proper nutritive balance needed for those who adhere to strict vegan diets… without going into all of the dry details.. a person could live their entire life healthily on water and hemp seed alone as the seeds provide the optimal amounts of fats, protein, and carbs needed for a healthy diet - all in one source. There is no other single food source - plant, animal, or otherwise known to man that provides such. And it’s the very same seeds and their oil which could be utilized for biodiesel production…

All in all, we need to be doing more to fully use the plant to its fullest extent - we just need to get over the stigma that surrounds it.