old-tank Posted October 24, 2013 Share Posted October 24, 2013 (edited) I wonder why they stopped ethanol...for awhile? Maybe prohibition 1920 to 1933 (date on the picture is 4-11-23). I'd rather drink it.Willie Edited October 24, 2013 by old-tank (see edit history) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Shaw Posted October 24, 2013 Share Posted October 24, 2013 It just goes to show the farm lobby has been promoting this for a long time.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnD1956 Posted October 25, 2013 Share Posted October 25, 2013 I think the picture is rather cool Willie. Are those two Packards with gangsters? I wonder what it was like for those gas jockeys in the winter. Must of been hell. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
60FlatTop Posted October 25, 2013 Share Posted October 25, 2013 We had an ethanol plant in Medina, New York, about 20 miles from me. It is closed now. I can tell because the constant plume of atmospheric steam venting has stopped.If you do a Google image search for pollution you will see a lot of pictures of water vapor. In the case of the corn licker plant, it appears they had a superheated steam process. Under light loads the steam has to be vented to atmosphere to maintain a flow in the boiler tubes. Otherwise the heat will not be taken away and the boiler tubes will melt. So this plant processed a small amount of ethanol and constantly burned natural gas that was almost all vented as steam. Now there is a carbon footprint.I put about 2,000 miles on my flexfuel truck using 15% and quit. The mileage was poor and unpredictable. I get 20 MPG with regular. Ethanol was $1.00 + less (minus my tax contribution). Ethanol ranged from 14 to 17 MPG with a noticeable reduction in power and smoothness. When the Check Engine light came on for a fuel related problem I switched back. At least I gave it a chance.The flexfuel system has a sampling vessel in the fuel line ahead of the tank, kind of like a daytank on a stationary diesel. The tank has a float that varies in level depending on the specific gravity of the fuel. The Sp. Gr. changes with the mixture. The float has a rheostat-type sensor that feeds a signal the the ECM that calculates the fuel properties and tunes the engine to predetermined settings. I think it de-tuned my truck too much and lost efficiency. Thank you Mr. Senator. How is your car running on 15%?Bernie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bhambulldog Posted October 25, 2013 Share Posted October 25, 2013 Thanks for that detailed explanation. That is most interesting. I would add that ,No amount of tuning will make up for the lower amount of energy that ethanol provides vs gasoline Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Earl B. Posted October 27, 2013 Share Posted October 27, 2013 Maybe they figured it didn't work well in the carburetor, when the cars started stalling and jerking from vapor lock Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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