Hahaha. Do I hear a "Yeeeehaw!"?
I've read some more regarding ethanol (and biodiesel), but overall, it would seem that Ethanol requires a bit more than just the alcohol to run. Not all vehicles have the necessary fuel system capable of handling anything higher than 10% ethanol in the mix. To do that may require a retro-fit, but I don't know how much that would cost.
It is possible to simply buy a car that is E85 compatible, but there's not that many of them out there. Here is a
PDF file of vehicles that are currently known to be E85 compatible.
It would seem the better alternative is still biodiesel.
Regardless of the case, the problem doesn't appear to be the technology itself so much as the ability to produce fuel in enough quantities to ween off foreign dependencies.
Originally, I read that American corn supplies would be enough. Then I read elsewhere that even if we were to plant corn in every square feet of the United States, it still wouldn't be enough, not to mention the enormous amount of waste in husk we would produce. Now, there's talk in the possibility of
genetically engineering algae to produce enough for biodiesel needs.
I know! Algae. Who thinks up this stuff?
The link is very wordy, but in the end, the point that hits it home for me is that it's an academic white paper. And that means that we are still in the theoretical stage of finding a viable, domestic source of alternative fuel. Sigh.
Apparently,
Brazil is doing real well with Ethanol on a country-wide scale though. It makes sense if you have a huge supply of sugar cane and you're more or less upgrading your transportation infrastructure from scratch. Still, I think it's worth keeping an eye on them and see how their development goes.
DIY Ethanol
