I read the other thread about converting a gasoline vehicle to ethanol and did a little research into it. it appears as most of the work involves recalibrating the PCM and fuel contact components such as the pump would need to be upgraded. surprisingly ethanol isnt any more corrosive than gas
E85(85% ethanol 15% gasoline) looks to be what Bush is pushing towards in his state of the union, California and many other western states already sell E10/E25(10/25% ethanol). E85 would be something like 105 octane and would support the grocery getter to the very high performance dragster(in fact I'm told that ethanol is commonly used in race fuel). Ethanol is 127% efficient to produce since it is produced on plant which harness the sun for energy - Gasoline is only about 84% efficient to produce.
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To produce meaning that the amount of energy stored per unit of ethanol will be 127% more than was used to produce it. This also means that gasoline takes MORE energy to produce than you get out of it - thats not even throwing in combustion energy innefficiency which would inflate both numbers in opposite directions. what a waste!
Converting to Ethanol:
E10 and E25 can be run(and is being used in some states) in most cars with standard emmissions equipment without any significant increase in emmissions. E85 however needs a new host of emmissions control parts to remain healthy for the environment.
Any car can run on Ethanol without the emisions alterarions(still need PCM calib and HO furlpump/injectors/hotter plugs) - but it violates federal EPA laws.
As of now, ethanol isnt produced in a large enough quantity to supplement the gasoline demand and the price is also around 2.50/gallon (similar to gasoline) but that is in part due to the small time production of the fuel! I think theres something like 90 plants that produce ethanol outputting 4% of the needed 120billion barrels of fuel. Once that number of plants reaches a significantly higher number the price will also drop to a more reasonable 1.70 or so with NO RELIANCE ON FOREIGN POLITICS!!! That means no more sudden jumps in price.
Of course, keep in mind the political and economic implications of removing reliance on foreign fuel. The stock market will not be gratefull, a lot of people will lose money and middle-eastern countries will feel their pockets getting lighter so I expect to see a LOT of political resistance against the growth of ethanol fuel.
Current E85 Capable cars:
Heres a site with immediately available cars
http://www.e85fuel.com/e85101/flexfuelvehicles.php
Here are some reference sites:
http://journeytoforever.org/ethanol.html
http://www.e85fuel.com
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcohol_fuel
http://www.michigan.gov