Flex Fuel

[Fauxmage]

Live Green Go Yellow (http://www.gm.com/company/onlygm/livegreengoyellow/index.html) is GM's new alternative fuel campaign. They are making ethanol from corn and claim that their vehicles will run on any combination of gasoline and ethanol up to 85% ethanol.

This raises a number of questions:

Should we keep on trying to maintain our current lifestyle by finding substitutes for fuel, or realize that the way we live, especially in the USA, is simply unsupportable on a long-term basis no matter what we try to do to maintain the status quo?

Is it moral to use food to fuel our lifestyle when others are starving?

Will it ever come down to a choice amongst omnis, when there is no more petroleum, to grow corn for fuel or for feeding "food" animals? Would an omni rather give up his car or his meat, if he had to choose?

Can they grow corn in the Middle East? They won't have any money from their oil anymore if no one needs it, and they don't have anything else worth going to war over, so could this be the answer to peace in the Middle East?

Would people who are against genetically modified organisms prefer to use petroleum over ethanol? It is very unlikely that the corn being used is not GMO, and GMOs have very disturbing effects on the environment that could prove even more disastrous than greenhouse gasses do.

Where are the gas stations that sell this stuff? :bhead:

[Tiggerwoos]

I had heard something a while ago about this and would be very interested to find out more...... it could well be the answer to alot of pollution and as you said peace in the middle east, plus I reckon it would be a lot cheaper to harvest it.

In the UK however there is a place that sells green fuels, not sure what sort, but the nearest one is about an hours drive. I hope that in the future, this sort of thing will become more readily available, although in the UK, the government enjoy taking the earth out of petrol at making it approx 90p....... suppose that would be about $1.70 per litre.

[Tiggerwoos]

I've also heard that its possible for cars to run on a large percentage of it, with sources running out in the Middle East, hopefully they will be forced in to having to provide a greener alternative.

[Fauxmage]

Hehe! I have had the extremely dubious pleasure of being stuck on a winding one lane road for about 5 miles behind one of those cars that runs on vegetable oil. I don't know how much better for the environment that horrid exhaust can be. Have you ever caught the oil in your wok on fire before you do a stir fry! PU! :blecch:

[vuycha]

I read a lot about biofuels and conclusion is that biofuels are good temporary measure until some realy ecological solution get in practice. Problem with biofuels produced from crops (and not from used oil, which is justified) is that complete agrocultural surfaces in world today are not enough to satisfy world demand. We have a case of total destruction in Indonesia, where ancient forests are cutted clean to make room for oil palms. Even part of protected forest on Borneo is cutted already. No long yet, and no forest in Indonesia will remain, orangutang and all that unique species are endangered, let alone human environment. If this tendency continues, we will have that model all over the world. Will the meateaters choose between fuel and meat? History tells us people dont want to deprave themself from any commodity, even if that is one way ticket to disaster. Peace in middle east because no more oil is there so no more reason for war? Bush will turn to latin America, Africa and Asia, lot of good soil and slaves for future oil-crops. As my country is very rich in best-quality drinking water, I only hope nobody will invade us.

[Bowwowmeow]

Bush will turn to latin America, Africa and Asia, lot of good soil and slaves for future oil-crops. As my country is very rich in best-quality drinking water, I only hope nobody will invade us. Don't forget, Bush only has a couple more years and then he will never get to be President again, as he has used up his two terms limit. :)
I think the USA and Russia should be able to grow enough corn and other crops so that they wouldn't need to invade other countries. Maybe that's just wishful thinking.
:sigh:

[vuycha]

Don't forget, Bush only has a couple more years and then he will never get to be President again, as he has used up his two terms limit. :)
:sigh:
Dennis Kucinich for president!! :yea: :yea: :yea:

[Gliondrach]

Just some rambling thoughts. It's after one o'clock in the morning and I am tired.

The blueprint for a carburettor that is supposed to give 200 miles to the gallon is said to have been found in the UK. It turns the petrol into a spray before it is ignited. It was designed by a Canadian in the 1930s but is supposed to have been blocked by the oil companies. I wonder if it's true?

Fuel can be made from trees, too. If there was much less usage of cars, enough fuel could probably be grown. The modern world relies on cars and aeroplanes and it would take a major shift in people's thinking before they would be willing to give up easy travel. There might be a call for a return to horse-drawn carts if the internal combustion engines are phased out. And horses pulling ploughs.

I think that there will soon be wars fought over water. As global warming continues, and sea levels rise, there could be more droughts and vanishing lakes. Water is so precious that countries would be willing to wage war to gain access to it.

[mothwing]

There is a tv prog in the UK at the moment called 'How To Be Green' about a family renovating a farmhouse with eco products and energy saving materials and also producing their own food (not vegan).

The other week they traded in their gas guzzling car for a land rover which although seems not to be a good trade, in terms of their lifestyle, space needed in back etc it was better. They decided to try to make their own biofuel using used chip oil.

They collected it from the chip shop, finely filtered it several times and finally added some magic ingredient I cant remember now and - voila - biofuel. They put it in their car and it worked!! It did take a lot of used oil to make a relatively small amount of oil but it shows it can be done.

Unfotunately though, due to this governments attitude to greening that even if you make contriutions to the environment you are going to get financially clobbered, they still had to pay duty on their own produced fuel, but it was still cheaper than puchased fuel which at the minute in the UK is threatening to go through the £1 per litre marker.

[Rainbow]

I saw that too Mothwing, but how barmy that the had to pay up to the UK gov, to use their own home-made fuel!

The other alternative, that it seems was quashed by certain high rankers, was hemp as a fuel - I don't know if this would be viable or not though.

[Gliondrach]

But how will anyone know how much fuel they use? They can say that they only use one gallon for every 12 gallons they actually use.

[mothwing]

Does it matter?

If they are funding the project themselves, buying or getting the used waste oil for free (something for free?? scandalous!), making the processing equipment out of salvaged bits or purchasing them, and paying their electric bills for any main grid power they use and they are paying their vehicle insurance and car tax duty....
:monarch: