More Ethanol Tidbits

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MolaKule

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quote:

A plant on the S. end of the town of Garnett, KS, expects to grind up 12.5 million bushels of corn in a year's time on the way to producing 35 million gallons of ethanol.

Manager Derek Paine compared the plant's three distilling tanks to the copper kettles often used by moonshiners. "The whole process is very similar," he said.

Ethanal blended fuel is available in Garnett, but the plant's products make it to pumps as far away as St. Louis and Tulsa. The manager says there is more demand than supply from his plant.

According to industry groups, ethanol production has risen steadily over the past decade, to an estimated 3.4 billion gal. per yr. There are 7 plants in operation across KS. There are 14 additional plants either under constr. or have been proposed which should triple the state's production capacity and make KS a bigger player in the marketplace.

The state expects Kansans to burn up 30 million gallons of ethanol over the next yr. ..compared with a previous mark of 5 million gallons. Most will be "e-10" or fuel that is 10 % ethanol. Market is growing very fast.

From another Source on conversion:

quote:

...it takes about 1 bushel of wheat, milo or corn to make 2 gallons of ethanol.

 
They're harvesting soybeans around my area this week, and the whole of southern Ontario is shrouded in a thick haze. People with breathing problems should stay indoors during this time.

Harvesting of corn or wheat doesn't seem to make quite as much dust, though.
 
I wish they had some E85 stations down here. My Dodge Caravan is E85 certified.
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quote:

To reduce unburned fuel, we should operate engines at the highest possible temperatures and use the best possible oil to withstand high temperature and provide good ring sealing. High engine temperatures naturally increase the Thermal Efficiency of piston engines. Ring seal is an important criteria for good engine operation to prevent the undesirable fuel-oil exchange across the rings. Mainly due to better ring seal, the author found that straight 40 or 20W-50 Torco oil yields both better mileage and lower emissions. This was somewhat surprising because it contradicts the industry view that light oils are more efficient.


Wow, what a mixed-bag rant!
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Sure, increasing the the combustion temps inside an engine raises the thermal efficiency, but the real physics and consideration of stoichiometric air-fuel ratios is missed in this paragraph. And then there is the increase in NOx emissions as combustion temperatures are raised. Add to that the fact that better and more expensive metallurgy is needed when temps are raised.

This person needs to go back and study composition, engine design, and some physics and chemistry wouldn't hurt either.
 
"...but the real physics and consideration of stoichiometric air-fuel ratios is missed in this paragraph..."

Agreed. My Dad tracks fuel comsumption for some state owned vehicles, some of which run on E-85, and after talking with him it he noticed the efficiency of the ethanol vehicles are down vs. the vehicles on regular gas...up to 10-15% by comparison.
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Molakule:

quote:

... but the real physics and consideration of stoichiometric air-fuel ratios is missed in this paragraph.

What do you consider to be the real physics/stoichiometric importance here?

I ask not to defend this fellow's opinion, but to further understand.
 
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