I learned on the internet that "About 1.68 litres of ethanol would have the same energy as a litre of diesel oil." I still need to get the number for gasoline, but assuming it is close to diesel, I compute that 1 gallon of ethanol has about the same energy as 0.6 gallons of gasoline. Therefore, 10 gallons of 10% ethanol blended gasoline has about the same energy as 9.6 gallons of gasoline. That would explain most of my mileage loss when running the blended stuff (about 7% worse gas mileage).
I really want to find out the difference in CO2 tailpipe output when traveling 100 miles on 10% blend versus the pure stuff. I have a sneaky feeling that the ethanol increases CO2 per mile, hence contributes greater to GLOBAL WARMING
3 comments:
I bought a 2005 Malibu Maxx last year. It has a 3.5 litre V6. With real gas, I get 36 mpg on the hwy at 65 mph. With the 10% Ethanol blend, that drops to 29-30 mpg. That's all the proof I needed. As to Diesel, I drive Semi. The company I drive for just gave me a brand new rig. My last truck had a Detroit diesel engine, and I avreaged between 7.4 - 8.2 mpg. This new truck has the new emmission crap mandated by the EPA. It gets 5.49 mpg. Same type engine. It's all a scam in my view.
Billiam - I was surprised that Consumer Reports bashed ethanol in the October '06 issue.
Although the reason for the bashing was apparent in the first sentence, "The Bush Administration has been pushing ethanol ..."
They don't call liberals "knee-jerk" without reason.
Jim
The Ethanol lobby is very powerful. Led by Archer-Daniels-Midland (a firm whose officers have been...ah...too friendly to politicians in the past), the lobby ALSO includes about every farm organization in the country.
The Pubbies have historically had the Farm vote, and they intend to keep it. Thus GWB's (and the Wis Legislature's) love-affair with ethanol.
Remember that the Farm lobby does not just include ma-and-pa farms. It includes Big Ag (lotsa very wealthy investor-owned farms of well over 5,000 acres/ea.), the Farm Equipment bunch (I-H-Case, Deere, Cat, Agco) and the co-ops, which are involved to a greater or lesser degree in distilling ethanol, as well as storage/transport, etc.
It's Colossal Rent-Seeking.
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