Alcohol Can Be A Gas

Generally speaking E-85 is a scan and is pushed heavily by certain government agencies and argo-lobbyists because it gives them a way to sell more corn.

Food products used to create fuel are about as stupid as using fossil fuel if not more. There is not enough ag land in production to create enough fuel to help us and those ag lands that are currently in cultivation are being mined for their resources and their productivity will not be long-lived. Cellulosic ethanol shows hope of possibly working as an alternative but it is doubtful it can be created on a large enough scale, without creating other ecological problems, to be more than just another trick in our bag of renewable energy.

 

David B. has a web site Welcome to Alcohol Can Be A Gas! | Permaculture & Alcohol Can Be A Gas

id stick to E-10 in the current Prius (without modification) thankfully the next G should be a flex-fuel (E-85) from the factory

 

Don't use anything higher than E10. Higher concentrations can damage rubber parts and some other components of the Prius. All new cars designed for E85 are clearly labeled as such.

Tom

 

This is exactly what I am talking about. Using land to create fuel instead of maintaining it as natural habitat (open space) or at the very minimum using it for human food production (in acordance to ecological considerations) is not considered wise use. We need to be thinking in terms of scale here and how our plans will effect the rest of our society.

 

sounds just like moonshine. 10K gallons with a certificate if it is used for fuel.

make you go blind and burn up your ICE also.

 

F8L, what do you think about using marginal land for this purpose. I see cattails switch grass etc growing in ditches all over the place up here? Not that I would burn it in my 08. But could be considered as flex with out taking land out of the food cycle.

The reason I ask, is that most of our dithes require to mowed in the summer. Some are used for hay.

 

I think it would depend on the ecosystem in question. In many places there are a number of species that require special plants during all or some portion of their life cycle. If catails are invasive or alien to your particular area or the species you plan to introduce provide more for that ecosystem then I think it would be a great idea. The problem is finding a plant species that is native to that area that will procduce the type of sugars you require for the fuel making process. Otherwise you run the risk of spreading a non-native species which is bad juju all around and is highly illegal in most states due to the costs in terms of economics and habitat degredation.

Streams, creeks and rivers are very efficient at spreading invasive/alien species so one has to be VERY careful about what you plant and where.

That being said, I think it would be a cool idea if all safety precautions were taken. Unfortunately I doubt the idea would gain much favor. The original idea was to create bio-barriers at the edges of crops to catch excess water and fertilizer runn-off. This creates wildlife habitat, climate mitigation, pollution control, and the vegetation grown in these areas can be harvested periodically to be used for energy (bio-fuels or thermal) while leaving some of the adjacent barriers intact to continue proving habitat, this avoids a total wildlife "eviction" during bio-barrier harvest times. This was based on cellulosic ethanol production but could be applied to "sugary" plant species as well.

I'm not an expert in this but the publications I have read indicate this as a viable option to solve multiple problems at once.

I like your thinking

 

On a side note, one could use all those cattails as a food course if one was so inclined and the drainage ditch was clean enough.

BROAD-LEAVED CATTAIL ​

Typha latifolia ​

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L. ​

Plant Symbol = TYLA ​