[DeTomaso] Ethanol "enriched" (diluted) fuel
MikeLDrew at aol.com
MikeLDrew at aol.com
Thu Jan 10 12:09:51 EST 2013
In a message dated 1/10/13 8 37 35, pantera874 at t-online.de writes:
> We have 10 percent Ethanol over here without any issues in any car.
>
>>>Except for greatly reduced fuel economy, which nobody seems to notice.
There is much less energy in a given quantity of gas diluted with ethanol,
so you need to use more throttle to achieve a given speed. While the fuel
burns more cleanly by volume (one liter of gas puts out more pollution than
one liter of diluted gas), what they fail to tell you is that to travel a
certain distance, you need to burn about 10 percent more fuel if it is
diluted. So you actually spend more money, and the pollution generated is almost
exactly the same because you burn more of the cleaner fuel. The only
winners are the farmers who are growing corn to dilute gasoline instead of
feeding people, and the politicians who have corn-generated money flowing into
their pockets.
The first time I encountered diluted gas was in 1989 when I rode my
motorcycle across the USA. I was getting a very consistent range per tank of fuel
until I hit corn country, then suddenly, I was having to stop and refuel
more often. I thought something had gone drastically wrong with my engine.
But when I got to the east coast, and was buying pure gas again, everything
was fine.
Since then, diluted gas has swept the country. In California, they made
it illegal to sell gas that is NOT diluted, so we have no choice here. :<(
> >I think the swedes have up to 85 percent.
>
>>>We have that here too, in some areas of the country (where corn is
grown). There are some flex-fuel vehicles designed to run on that stuff, and
they do just fine with it.
Mike
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