Re: [MLUG - DISCUSSION] How Many Miles to the Bushel?

["Vern Green" <EMAIL:PROTECTED>]

Much like hybrids, these alternative fuels are not about being cheaper
then gasoline, though some of them are, most of it has to do with
being cleaner.

I saw a report on the local news channel here recently about E85 and
the problem with it right now is the cost of creating the ethanol in
the first place. There was also mention that it is not nearly as
efficient as gasoline, so the cost goes even higher.

I think the real benefit in E85 is that it is cleaner burning and it
could potentially reduce our use of foreign oil.

On 5/30/06, Mike Miller <EMAIL:PROTECTED> wrote:
> So this article finds that E85 is twice as expensive to use as gasoline
> and M85 is much worse than E85.  Does that seem right?  See below.
> --Mike
>
>
> http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/27/business/media/27offline.html
>
> N.Y. Times
> May 27, 2006
>
> What's Offline
>
> How Many Miles to the Bushel?
>
> By PAUL B. BROWN
>
> TOO often, discussions of alternative energy take place in an alternative
> universe where prices do not matter," Popular Mechanics reports.
>
> To remedy that, the magazine set out to figure out what it would cost to
> drive from New York to California using seven types of fuel.
>
> It was not exactly an apples-to-apples comparison. Because there was not
> one automobile that could handle all types of fuel, the magazine tried to
> match the cars as closely as possible in size and weight. And the price it
> used for gasoline -- $2.34 a gallon -- is about 20 percent less than most
> people are now paying at the pump.
>
> Still, the results in the cover article by Mike Allen are intriguing and
> surprising. The cheapest fuel was electricity. About one ton of coal would
> be needed to produce the requisite energy. Cost to drive coast to coast:
> $60. Using compressed natural gas would set a driver back $110. And
> biodiesel, made of used vegetable oil in the magazine's example, would
> cost $231.
>
> Gasoline, as it turns out, figured in the middle of the pack. It would
> take 4.5 barrels of crude oil to produce the 91 gallons of gasoline
> necessary to get a Honda Civic coast to coast. The cost would be $213.
>
> On the high end were E85/ethanol, a mixture of 85 percent ethanol and 15
> percent gasoline, at $425, and M85/methanol, 85 percent methanol and 15
> percent gasoline, at $619. And then there was hydrogen. It would require
> 16,000 cubic feet of hydrogen to power General Motors' Hy-wire concept
> car: $804.
>
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--
Thanks
F Vernon Green

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