Make Your Own Ethanol (If Only It Were That Easy) - Water Powered Car

[Jay481985]

In NJ you can buy everclear for around 31 dollars a handle.

So is that where the band Everclear's name came from? I've never heard that name anywhere else.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Everclear_(alcohol))

[Jay481985]

I was wondering when someone was going to get around to saying this.

Like I mentioned in the gas prices thread - people think we happened upon gasoline just by accident. Even worse is this seemingly frentic search by the public for some magic fuel bullet. Hasn't it ever occurred to folks that scientists for the last 50+ years have tried every possible combination of "_hols" in order to improve upon gasoline?? In each instance they might have gotten better performance or better mileage or better emissions or whatever. But in every case, something else suffered. Sorry to sound so closed-minded, but the truth is that gasoline, as we know it, is the best compromise compound when it comes to energy output per given volume with the least amount of emissions and least amount of volativity.

Tom

I wanna furthur clarify things.

In order of oil sent to the US, It is Canada, Mexico, then "Saudi Arabia"
The reason why everyone loves Saudi Arabian Oil is because it is "light sweet" meaning they get a higher yield of gasoline from a barrel (55 gallons) of crude oil. Canadian is mostly shale oil which is oil mixed with rocks and sand and a lower grade meaning it needs to be filtered and refined more (but the great thing is there is soo much in Canada, that it will probably last for another 100 years (in which time they will find more oil) but the cost of refining and filtering was too much when gas was 1.80 to really go after the shale oil. But I think since gas hits record highs everyday, innovation and urgency will cause someone to find a better (mostly cheaper) method of extracting and refining shale oil.

Also another thing I want to mention, name brand versus no name brand. Wanna know something, I said Canada was the number one in exporting oil to the US and why is that? Cause it is all piped in, there are two main pipelines; one that supplies the west coast and one that supplies the east coast. Its alot cheaper to send oil through pipes then ship it from Saudi Arabia. But because Canada is the number one importer it most likely is the highest percentage of gas or diesel that is going into your car. But here is the catch.... Premium brand gas stations and cheapo no name gas stations use the same oil. They just buy shares of the main oil that is pumped in. Then it goes into the refinery where again it is processed together into its respected grade (87, 89, 91, 93). The only time it is truely different is when it is refined and then the premium grade gases add their own special formulas (mostly detergeants and additives, which you can go to the nearest autoshop to buy, hell chevron even says on the bottle its the same stuff that they put in their gas so if you are paranoid about it go put a bottle (good for 3 months) of that with the no name brand gas and it will probably be cheaper than the name brand gas station). The only time I am worried is if the gas station has pump problems, mainly water in the tank.

Another funny thing is that the higher the octane, the more crappier the crude oil was. I forgot where I watched it (I think modern marvels: gasoline) but it stated that the initial or first refined gasoline is the lowest octane, the leftover crude is then reprocessed in which yields higher grade octane... So everyone thinks that high grade octane is the creme of the gasoline while in fact it was made from the crud of the crude oil.

Octane is not more powerful. Gasoline is a mixture of different chemicals. Octane is just one of the many chemicals in Gas. It is preferred due to the nature of it not pre igniting (blowing up before the right time, which causes knocking) This is important due to the nature of today's high compression engines (mostly the small inline 4 cylinders that many people drive with the higher compression engines (mostly japanese) but the great thing is that most engines will self compensate knocking due to the computer system detecting knocking and lowering the rpm. Going back to octane is not more powerful, it is true, 87 gas has more caloric (energy) value than 93 gas but if the car cannot utilize it due to knocking it is wasted anyways and can potentially damage the engine beyond repair. (so no putting 87 in a honda S2000)

My thoughts on hybrid cars are not to buy them. The great thing is they look good and they seem like a solution. But here are some food for thought, the energy used to make the car already puts them in a negative to any gas car. (Making the electric motor and battery system puts them soo far behind that any gains made by the better mpg are negated). Second they use Nickel Cadmium and Nickel Metal Hydroxide (both are toxic to people) I forget the number but its more than 100 AA rechargable batteries in parallel that drives the electric motor. (They cannot use lithium ion yet due to the hydrogen build up with the heat which caused as many will remember the sony battery recall where laptops would go on fire, Sony and Matshushita (panasonic) have enough problems with small computer batteries, think of the terror of bigger car batteries spontaneously going on fire). But the main thing I dislike about the prius is that in 3-5 years when the car's service life is over the batteries need to be recycled (those that tend to use the electric motor will wear the batteries down faster, just like an ipod or cellphone's battery just doesn't hold the charge a few years down the line than when your first brought it). When was the last time something was done properly? I fear that all these Nickel Cadmium and Nickel Metal Hydroxides will be dumped and rust and eventually find its way into the water stream as it always tends to do. Fine, get better gas mileage and trade the fact that toxic waste dumps need to be increased to meet the demands of the hybrid cars. Also trade better gas mileage for water that will become contaiminated so that your kids will get leukemia..... all in the name of better gas mileage.... How does this sound now to those who believed the go green campaign and believed the hype. Not to mention that fact that prius cars are really quiet and recently children, elderly, and pets have all been hit due to the car riving on electric power in city.

okay I will end my rant

[Islander]

Octane is not more powerful. Gasoline is a mixture of different chemicals. Octane is just one of the many chemicals in Gas. It is preferred due to the nature of it not pre igniting (blowing up before the right time, which causes knocking) This is important due to the nature of today's high compression engines (mostly the small inline 4 cylinders that many people drive with the higher compression engines (mostly japanese) but the great thing is that most engines will self compensate knocking due to the computer system detecting knocking and lowering the rpm.

Modern high compression engines run well with low-octane gasoline because of better combustion chamber design. Even as far back as the mid-1980s, some motorcycles had 11-11.5:1 compression engines that would run happily on regular fuel, while older engine designs would need premium, even at 8.5:1 compression ratios.

As for the engine management system limiting knocking, it's done by retarding the ignition timing, not by lowering the engine revs. Some performance-oriented cars will run as much spark advance as the octane rating of the fuel in the tank will permit, so with those cars, using higher octane fuel will allow higher horsepower.

[Jay481985]

As for the engine management system limiting knocking, it's done by retarding the ignition timing, not by lowering the engine revs. Some performance-oriented cars will run as much spark advance as the octane rating of the fuel in the tank will permit, so with those cars, using higher octane fuel will allow higher horsepower.

Retarding ignition timing is basically lowering the engine revs. But what you said is the correct term, that is what I meant to say but didn't quite think of it at the time.

I remember Cadillac making a big deal with the Northstar making 300 hp on regular fuel.

Also what's funny I remember is that the Mercedes S550 (A 5.5 liter engine) got some award for being one of the most cleanest enviromental friendly engines around, not even the toyota prius got that award!