4 Responses

1. No, it is not cheaper nor is it any more powerful…
   All nonsense…
   Don’t you think we would be using it if it was cheaper and better ?

2. the hold up is the energy companies. they want to position themselves to be at the forefront of new technology and energy so it will add to their profits. brazil has had biofuel for 2 years now. brazil also has ford and gm autos that run on blended fuel (bio and fossel) but the oil companies tell us it will be 6-8 years before they can sell bio fuel here in the US. also the auto makers want in on the gold mine of auto that burn blended fuel. its all about money. by the time the oil and auto companies are finished, biofuels will cost as much as fossel fuels now.

3. 1. Biofuel that can be readily produced from plants — ethanol or methane — is more volatile but less dense than gasoline. Not necessarily more “powerful.”

   2. Gasoline cars can be altered to run on high-ethanol mixes. But they get lower mileage because of the reduced energy density.

   3. At present ethanol is in such limited supply in the United States that it actually costs more than gasoline.

   4. Biofuel doesn’t come for free from biomass. You have to ferment and distill the plant debris to get fuel in this form. That production requires input of energy, which often comes from fossil fuels.

   There is a big debate in the scientific comunity as to whether biofuel can be produced in a large scale without consuming more energy than it produces.

4. It is not used to run race cars. Depending on the type of racing, alcohol, high octane gasoline or nitro-methane is used. Bio fuel alone simply doesn’t measure up to gasoline’s power output(BTU content).

   The modern automobile will usually run fine on up to a 10% mixture of bio fuel with the gasoline (often referred to as ‘gasohol’). Over that ratio, driveability concerns are a problem.
   Vehicles manufactured to run on multi-fuels can use up to a 20% mixture. Either way, this technology could eventually lead to a 10 or 20% reduction in gasoline usage – and this is a BIG country and that’s a LOT of gasoline saved.

   Under pressure from the Bush administration, the factories and refineries are already being ramped up and new production facilities are being built – especially in the Midwest – but the start up costs are very high and the effectiveness of bio fuel as an alternative energy source is still being debated.

   I would venture a guess that gasohol will be at your pumps within the next five years.