aside from motorcycles, car owners/drivers have now
started responding to the effects of ethanol on their
engines, incl higher, fuel consumption per miles driven,
plus more fuel used to drive them, due to reduced power
of engines using ethanol, effecting ability of engines to
generate power to go up hills, overtake, pull caravans
boats, trailers etc..
also, apparently, it takes only a little ethanol to have
certain of its known corrosive etc effects, such as a small
amount in a container then filled with normal petrol,
or, a hose at a service station you use to pump
regular petrol thru which has just been used
to pump ethanol into the car before you..
if you think of engines of cars, bikes etc like human lungs,
its like forcing everyone to inhale 10% tobacco smoke..
under the guise of; 'health legislation'...
I personally think ethanol fuel is ridculous for so many reasons, We do grow a lot of corn. However, currently 1/2 of the corn grown in the US is being diverted for ethanol production, and:
[LIST][*]This increases the cost of beef, chicken, and any other form of livestock that depends on corn for food.[*]Diverting corn for ethanol costs lives. Historically, a large part of surplus corn has been given (or sold at low cost) to developing countries to ease the persistent food shortages they have. Many relief organizations are tying the increased price and decreased availability of corn as a major impediment to fighting malnutrition and starvation in third-world nations.Luke
2 things that you are missing.
1. Cattle should not be eating corn. We force them to eat it because its cheap and there's a lot of it, but their digestive system isn't designed for it especially in large quantities. Feeding cattle corn reduces their life expectancy, but since we are getting them fat for the slaughter no one seems to care. We should stop this practice.
2. A lot of the corn is used for High Fructose Corn Syrup. Which is another practice that needs to be stopped or at least greatly reduced. Selling soda in schools is one of the dumbest things I have ever heard of.
I personally don't think that adding ethanol is a good long term decision but as listed above its not the only stupid thing we do with corn.
For more information watch the documentary "King Corn"
Last edited by ecustu7; 11-05-2012 at 10:41 PM.
The Following 3 Users Say Thank You to ecustu7 For This Useful Post:
Just a quick question , is ethanol fuel the only fuel available over in your part of the world ? Here in oz 98 is only 10-15 cpl more, on a full tank that's only $1.30 more a tank. Why wouldn't you just use the good stuff ?
It's becoming more and more difficult to find non oxygenated gasoline in the U.S... just the way it is.
I think, chemically, higher blends of gas/ethanol won't really work. At a certain point the ethanol becomes immiscible with the gas and they completely separate. They'll have to stop at some point or find a way to make them mix. Or maybe produce engines rated for really high percentages of ethanol with no gas in the mix. The Citgo's around us carry non-ethanol gas. The local Sunoco advertises it, but it's only the premium mix. I don't mind paying a premium for it while it's still available. They even give you a deal if you pay cash.
__________________
"We now return to "Battling Seizure Robots"."
If Im not mistaken, the ethanol made is from field corn, which is inedible without processing. So it can only be made into crap that nobody should eat anyway. Not saying I think its right, just stating the fact. Field corn is not the same as sweet corn which is edible without processing.
...also, apparently, it takes only a little ethanol to have certain... effects, such as a... hose at a service station you use to pump regular petrol thru which has just been used to pump ethanol into the car before you...
The Obama administration acknowledges that this could be a real problem with the upcoming E15 mandate. The following solution by the EPA is not a joke. Only a government bureaucracy could come up with a "solution" like this. The EPA is mandating that stations which sell E15 will have to require customers to buy a minimum of four gallons of fuel, regardless of which blend they are purchasing. That's right. If you want to fill your stone-empty CBR250 3 gallon tank, you will have to dump at least a gallon of it on the ground to satisfy the EPA mandate.
4 gallon minimum? I'd either have to carry a Jerry can in the back of my car or bungee my 1 gallon can to the back seat of the bike . . .permanently if I want to go on any long rides.
Not only 4 gallons . . . 4 gallons of ethanol!
Years back when I worked at the BMW dealership, we used to sell auxiliary tanks for the R100. I seem to remember they would give about an extra gallon. Perhaps they might make a comeback as an accessory.
Just a quick question , is ethanol fuel the only fuel available over in your part of the world ? Here in oz 98 is only 10-15 cpl more, on a full tank that's only $1.30 more a tank. Why wouldn't you just use the good stuff ?
I don't know how they do it in the USA, but here it gets mixed for all the petrol. Everywhere you go RON95 fuel contains 5% of Ethanol. Sometimes there are fuels with an even higher percentage (E10/E15), but they're marked as such. I guess the problem is not knowing what fuel contains what percentage of ethanol, as it would be better to avoid using it. I prefer not tanking RON98 - apart from the engine being designed for RON95, thus having the ECU readjust to the combustion moment, of which I don't know whether it has a negative effect on the performance - as it is more expensive and I'm not sure whether or not it contains the ethanol.
CBR250r
