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Future fuel...Ethanol??

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Old Aug 11, 2007 | 04:31 PM
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Default Future fuel...Ethanol??

This may be a dumb question to some of you, but I have been inquiring about this issue for quite some time now. If and when our precious gasoline gets replaced with ethanol, will there be some way we could burn this in our LS1's? Like an upgrade of some sort? I'm sure gasoline may be available next to ethanol for a while, but i'm sure ethanol will be much cheaper. . .
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Old Aug 11, 2007 | 04:58 PM
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Ethanol will never be anything more than a novelty. Gasoline will be around for a long time, so don't concern yourself. There just isnt enough farmland to support the ammount of ethanol it would take to replace gas.
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Old Aug 11, 2007 | 05:20 PM
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not to mention, fuel costs arent any cheaper on ethanol...
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Old Aug 11, 2007 | 05:34 PM
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yea, and my parents explorer can run off of ethanol, and it says that it will reduce your MPG's by like 30% so its less efficent then gas
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Old Aug 11, 2007 | 05:36 PM
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True, but with gasoline prices going up, and the supply and demand for oil being an issue, we just may see gasoline being replaced second to another type of fuel by the year 2017. Saudia Arabia (a major oil supplier) will be emptied of all it's oil by around the year 2011 apparently, and I see nothing but problems for gasoline from then on. Maybe i'm just a worry wart, but I have been reading up a lot on this issue, and it seems to be very plausible.
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Old Aug 11, 2007 | 05:45 PM
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Originally Posted by SLawson86
not to mention, fuel costs arent any cheaper on ethanol...
ATM that is true, but Bush and other politicians are apparently planning to have this fuel more readily availabe in the future, thus making it cheaper. Although, there are talks of other types of fuels on the table too. Only time will tell I guess. . .But like said above, I don't think GM and other companies would implement this "bi-fuel" into their vehicles if there wasn't a good chance of this fuel being used in the future. We already know oil isn't going to last much longer.
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Old Aug 11, 2007 | 08:24 PM
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What we gain in Ethanol we lose in crops that the extra corn planted for the ethanol takes. Think of everything being connected there is NO FREE ENERGY!!!
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Old Aug 11, 2007 | 09:03 PM
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salt water fuel of the future
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Old Aug 11, 2007 | 09:52 PM
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Originally Posted by rune02
salt water fuel of the future
I wouldn't hold my breath on that cold fusion idea.
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Old Aug 11, 2007 | 10:23 PM
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True they're building a lot more ethanol plants, there's several trying to get permits around here. Ethanol is a temporary solution, but it wont go big time. Yes it will reduce our dependancy quite a bit but not near enough. Either way- farmers win! It's about time they started makin some money. I like how when corn hit $4/bushel lots of my friends dads got new trucks. The more ethanol the U.S wants to produce the more and more the fam. farm becomes a gold mine.
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Old Aug 12, 2007 | 12:35 AM
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Originally Posted by CockerKid009
True they're building a lot more ethanol plants, there's several trying to get permits around here. Ethanol is a temporary solution, but it wont go big time. Yes it will reduce our dependancy quite a bit but not near enough. Either way- farmers win! It's about time they started makin some money. I like how when corn hit $4/bushel lots of my friends dads got new trucks. The more ethanol the U.S wants to produce the more and more the fam. farm becomes a gold mine.
Didn't think of it that way, good point! The farmers deserve every bit of it $$$
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Old Aug 12, 2007 | 05:06 AM
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wa wa wa wata (waterboy)
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Old Aug 12, 2007 | 05:16 AM
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Ethanol is "higher octane" than gasoline, which makes it well-suited to high-compression engines and diesels. It also goes under the term "bio-diesel" when used for heavier equipment. Baisically it is "moonshine" or distilled corn mash. Cheap to produce and I'm for anything within reason that will reduce our dependency on the Middle East...
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Old Aug 12, 2007 | 10:20 AM
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Originally Posted by SScott
What we gain in Ethanol we lose in crops that the extra corn planted for the ethanol takes. Think of everything being connected there is NO FREE ENERGY!!!

totally true, I work in a food and beverage department and the price of corn is sky rocketing and since they feed the cows corn to at ore nutrients to the milk then all dairy product are going up also

Last edited by ICEMAN 31; Aug 12, 2007 at 11:42 AM.
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Old Aug 12, 2007 | 11:08 AM
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Yup, there are LOTS of things that you would never even think would be remotely affected that will and will cost in $$$
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Old Aug 12, 2007 | 02:18 PM
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Weather patterns will dictate fuel price... lol
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Old Aug 12, 2007 | 05:56 PM
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absolutely, drought, hurricane, etc...
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Old Aug 12, 2007 | 06:15 PM
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Originally Posted by SScott
What we gain in Ethanol we lose in crops that the extra corn planted for the ethanol takes. Think of everything being connected there is NO FREE ENERGY!!!
While most of us were sleeping we all became ethanol fuel users of sort. The ethanol producers (no not farmers) are receiving at present $1.86 government subsidity (you & me) for every gallon of gasoline displaced by ethanol usage. That's an extra profit of $ 1.86 for every 15 gallons used on the 15/85 % blend.

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Old Aug 14, 2007 | 04:41 PM
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Originally Posted by Starz T/A 17
yea, and my parents explorer can run off of ethanol, and it says that it will reduce your MPG's by like 30% so its less efficent then gas
My wifes Explorer uses Ethanol and yes the mileage is about 25% lower and the fuel is only about 20% cheaper.

But there are some huge advantages if your a performance oriented person. When we ran on gas the truck was a gutless wonder, But on E85 it drives more like a V8. It drives completely different on E85, thing is you don't notice any performance differences till at least the second tank of fuel.

And it does burn cleaner.
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Old Aug 14, 2007 | 04:53 PM
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ethanol is a net energy user...it takes more energy to produce than it releases when burned. no thanks.
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