[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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