niuhuskie84 Wrote:if anyone watched it, there was a bit on 60 minutes about ethanol fuel tonight.
I had it on DVR, but just now watched it.
Showed an ethanol plant in Iowa. Dan Rather made a point of telling us that the clouds of smoke issuing from the plant were steam, not pollutants. But apparently a lot of the water is released as steam.
the ethanol factory was described as a big still. The corn mash is distilled down to beer, then eventually to ethanol. Since it is a liquid, another share of the water goes into your car, to be released back into the atmosphere from your exhaust. It was not shown how much, if any water was not used up in either steam or product.
They are working on ways to make ethanol from cellulose, thus making it even cheaper. Imagine, weeds as a cash crop.
Rather asked an expert if this was the best alternative. The expert sidestepped the answer, saying it was a good one and was available now. He also said it would have a marginal positive effect on greenhouse gas emmissions.
Rather failed to mention the part about Brazil pushing their domestic oil exploration/production, making it seem as though their independence from foreign oil was entirely the result of ethanol.
Only about 5 million of 133 million cars in America are FlexFuel cars. Only 615 stations currently sell E-85.