Houston being a petrochemical town, I thought some of you might be interested these. http://www.cbc.ca/stories/2002/03/21/gasoline020321 http://www.cbc.ca/stories/2002/03/22/co2_oil020322 Combined, these measures could increase oil production in the US while decreasing consumption by 10%. They would also decrease CO2 emissions by 30% plus whatever is pumped down the wells. It's not a complete solution by any means, but it looks like it may be a very good short term measure.
http://www.news.cornell.edu/releases/Aug01/corn-basedethanol.hrs.html The ethanol article doesn't take into consideration for the making of ethanol. There are environmental, economic, and logistic reasons to approach using ethanol exclusively very causiosly. I'm not saying it can't (double negative) be done well, but the corn lobby is pushy and tries to limit octane busting agents to ethanol when others might work. I'd need more info than is on the web to determine if this is a good thing. From the article Grizzled posted ______________ Ethanol-blended gasoline has a higher oxygen content, which allows the fuel to burn cleaner. _______________ This statement is misleading. Other substances can raise octane number and accomplish the same feat as ethanol. Its the other issues that determine whether or not ethanol is more or less harmful to the environment than the other chemicals that can raise the oxygen content. Economics is another problem I have with ethanol. Higher gas prices will cause other companies to look for cost effective solutions. The cost effective solution is rarely the environmental solution. With a increase in the need for corn fields, will Brazil cut down more forests hoping to earn a few quick bucks? A bad economy isn't good for the environment. This is a big decision that politicians shouldn't take lightly. Limiting the solutions to ethanol would be short sided decision even if it is the best option now.
Interesting. The economics may be different here. We have a relatively high gas tax (last I looked gas was about $.65 Cdn per litre (you do the math ) and this proposal calls for the ethanol component to be tax free. Saskatchewan has a depressed farm economy, so this may also be a way to promote demand and add value added processing to the province. http://www.greenfuels.org/ethaques.html Here's an article that talks, briefly, about producing ethanol from waste biomass, like straw and wood. http://www.src.sk.ca/pdf_downloads/news/ethanol.pdf
Great sites Grizzled!! I'll see if i can dig up some more info, later. Ethanol is a good additive to gas, but requires a lot of energy to be made. MTBE would be a great additive if it could be modified so in doesn't penetrate the soil so readily along with a couple of other issues. Just reread one of the sites you listed, it said the energy needed to make ethanol was less than the nergy ethanol produced. I've always thought it was the other way around, but it may just be improved technology has changed things.
Here's another interesting report. It's essentially a proposal for a wheat straw ethanol plant in Washington State. The economics, and politics, of this issue have changed since 9/11/01 as well. http://www.pacificbiomass.org/publications/WSUCEEP2001051.pdf
