Community Forums

wonderer1 · 10-11-2012, 10:18 AM

food for thought. i was listening to a radio show yesterday. David Blume has writen books, the last one is. alcohol as a gas. his web site is www.alcoholasagas.com makes a lot on interesting points and ideas. one of his statements is in brazil (which uses alcohol almost exclusively as fuel for vehicles) even has their semis running on alcohol. Some he stated are alcohol injected after turbo into intake track. another is a blend of 95% alcohol / 5% diesel (for lubrication). i'm not endorsing this, just leting those that haven't heard about him, and those that like to think about alternatives. one of his interesting points (if you believe him) is, if we could replace oil as a fuel to alcohol, growing crops, refining, etc. could greatly reduce unemployment. well being frugal i sent for a used book from amazon. if nothing else i've got 600+- pages of reading.

Midniteoyl · 10-11-2012, 11:35 AM

We'll all starve to death...

Besides, last I read, the fuel used was E25 (25% ethanol / 75% gas). And, in fact, that E25 was reduced to E11 do to shortages and high prices.

And, just so you know, the 'diesel' engines running on ethanol are highly modified. And, there are very few of them in actual use.. and then as experiiments.

Quote:

Ethanol-powered diesel engine Under the auspices of the BioEthanol for Sustainable Transport (BEST) project, the first ethanol-powered (E95 or ED95) bus began operations in São Paulo city on December 2007 as a one-year trial project. [57] The bus is a Scania model with a modified diesel engine capable of running with 95% hydrous ethanol blended with a 5% ignition improver, with a Marcopolo body. [58] Scania adjusted the compression ratio from 18:1 to 28:1, added larger fuel injection nozzles, and altered the injection timing. [59]

During the trial period performance and emissions were monitored by the National Reference Center on Biomass (CENBIO - Portuguese: Centro Nacional de Referência em Biomassa) at the Universidade de São Paulo, and compared with similar diesel models, with special attention to carbon monoxide and particulate matter emissions. [58] Performance is also important as previous tests have shown a reduction in fuel economy of around 60% when E95 is compared to regular diesel. [57]

In November 2009, a second ED95 bus began operating in São Paulo city. The bus was a Swedish Scania with a Brazilian CAIO body. The second bus was scheduled to operate between Lapa and Vila Mariana, passing through Avenida Paulista, one of the main business centers of São Paulo city. [60] The two test buses operated regularly for 3 years. [61]

In November 2010 the municipal government of São Paulo city signed an agreement with UNICA, Cosan, Scania and Viação Metropolitana", the local bus operator, to introduce a fleet of 50 ethanol-powered ED95 buses by May 2011. The city's government objective is to reduce the carbon footprint of the city's bus fleet which is made of 15,000 diesel-powered buses, and the final goal is for the entire bus fleet to use only renewable fuels by 2018 . Scania will manufacture the buses in its plant located in São Bernardo do Campo, São Paulo. These buses use the same technology and fuel as the 700 buses manufactured by Scania and already operating in Stockholm. [62][63][64]

The first ethanol-powered buses were delivered in May 2011, and the 50 buses will start regular service in June 2011. [61] The fleet of 50 ethanol-powered ED95 buses had a cost of R$ 20 million (US$12.3 million) and due to the higher cost of the ED95 fuel, one of the firms participating in the cooperation agreement, Raísen (a joint venture between Royal Dutch Shell and Cosan), will supply the fuel to the municipality at 70% the market price of regular diesel.

wa8yxm · 10-11-2012, 12:19 PM

I know a lot of oil goes to brazil with alcohol added (it's called "Splash and Dash" and it's one of the ways the big oil robber barons keep the prices high here in the US).

I'm not sure that Alcohol in the diesel fuel is a good thing.

But then I don't much care for it in my gas tank either.

Nick-B · 10-11-2012, 01:37 PM

Puttin' booze in your fuel is a waste!

henderson · 10-11-2012, 03:21 PM

I was a mechanic in the Army late 60s early 70s, we had multifuel deuce and half's they would run on just about any liquid that would burn and they could pump through there injectors. you could run on gasoline just put a 5 gallon can of motor oil in. Alcohol was the same just ad some oil.