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This is such a long story that I think that even I have forgotten a lot of the details, but I will try to make it as short and sweet as I can. It was July 2008, right in the heat of the rising fuel prices that I heard Dave Blume interviewed on Coast to Coast about the hope found in Ethanol to save the day and the World. Seeing E-85 was over $1.00 cheaper per gallon I was excited to jump on the Moonshine Band Wagon. I Learned about Dan Lorenzo and the E-85 conversion kit offered by his company called White Lightning. These kit will convert any fuel injected engine to adjust the fuel/air mixture to properly run on Ethanol. Selling their kits looked like a great way to help save the world and make some money so I Pay Paled them the money to get started as a White Lightning Dealer. It seemed to me the best opportunity to market these kits would be at renewable/alternative energy fairs and shows so I searched the local area and signed on as a vendor at a few and waited to receive my first shipment of E-85 conversion Kits. Little did I know that White Lightning was suffering some major growing pains and was having troubles getting the product at their end, so when my first show at Crestone, Colorado rolled around in mid August, I had only received a few bits and pieces of my kit collection, but enough, I figured, that along with my info and brand new banner I just had made, I should be able to make some sales. I showed up at the Crestone town park at about 11:00pm with a 1/2 tank of E-85 and a Suburban full of show stuff and as I unrolled my sleeping bag for the night I was beaming with hope and excitement. It was not to far into the next day when my hopes really sank, I was not prepared for Ethanol being the bastard step child of the Alternative Energy scene. Instead of selling product I found myself having to defend its existence. With, "why would you want to run your car on food when the world is starving?" and, "You know it takes more energy to make Ethanol then it will produce don't you?" I felt like I was dodging bullets. Not all was lost, I did sell a bunch of AMSOIL, turns out the Crestonians are big fans but only found a very few with an interest in the conversion kits of which I had none to sell. That was pretty much how the rest of the shows I had scheduled went except I did learn more and became better at defending Ethanol's right to exist but it did get old being in defense mode all the time. Over the months I was able to arrange 30 or so sales if I had ever gotten enough or the right kind of kits. So November 2008 rolls around, Barrack wins the election, gas prices plummet (for whatever reason) and I am still waiting on conversion kits. I finally called Dan at White Lightning and told him that here in Colorado we have a saying, "you have got to make hay while the sun shines." Well, Dan, the sun has set and the hay is still in the field. Now don't get me wrong, through out this all Dan Lorenzo and his team did their best to get me my kits. It sounded like they really had a bad time with their manufacturer who was located in the good old U.S.A so to alleviate their supply issues (not because of cost) Dan had to ship them off to China to be made. Yet when I told Dan I was throwing in the towel, he quickly refunded all my money and promised me one of the soon to be released next generation E-85 conversion kits. Dan was a real gentleman about it all and after reading through the rest of this, if you decide to convert your rig to run on E-85, White Lightning still has the best kit on the market at the best price. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- But now let me share with you my views and what I have learned over the summer and why I am still a supporter of Ethanol. First off compared to Petrol, Ethanol is a superior fuel, the way I see it Ethanol is to Petrol what pure synthetic AMSOIL is to conventional Petrol motor oil. Petrol is very inconsistent out of the ground and at your pump with many impurity's such as Carbon which adds to engine wear, clogging, build up, pollution and etc, of nothing good. Ethanol is just Ethanol, its only real impurity is water. So with Ethanol, your Internal Combustion Engine will run cleaner, especially out the Tail Pipe with a significant drop in Carbon Monoxide and Hydro-Carbons (the junk that leads to lung problems), cooler, since Ethanol has a lower combustion temperature and smoother because Ethanol burns more progressive through out the whole downward stroke, instead of a instant explosion, actually increasing the potential torque of the engine. So why do modern vehicles (flex-fuel) running on Ethanol get worse fuel mileage you may ask? Part of the answer to that has to do with Octane. The Octane Level of a fuel defines a fuels ability to NOT self ignite under compression. The higher the Octane # the higher it can be compressed before it self ignites. The higher the compression that can be designed into an engine the more efficiency and power can be obtained from the volume of Fuel/Air mixture in the piston cylinder. The lower grades of Petrol fuel has a lower Octane # and, from what I understand, the available Petrol keeps dropping in grade to the point that the oil company's have to induce additives into the fuel to raise it up to a minimal Octane standard, M.T.B.E, being a nasty Cancer causing additive, and Ethanol are both often used (funny). Minimum Octane levels are set at 85(regular gas) so most modern engines are designed to run on the minimum with a low enough compression so as not to pre-ignite the junk Petrol. The problem with pre-ignition is the fuel will ignite before the piston is finished its compression stroke which is kind of counter productive. If you have ever heard a knocking sound coming from your engine under a load, that is pre-ignition. E-85, which is 15% Dino Poop, is about 105 Octane and pure Ethanol I have heard as being as high as a 115 Octane. To take full advantage of these high Octane levels an engine would need to have a lot higher compression ratio doubling from around 7:1 found in most modern vehicles to 14:1 would be a good start. So by designing a high compression engine you could easily meet or surpass the MPG of Petrol and greatly increase the Horse Power. There is a reason why many Race Cars run on Alcohol. The other part of the millage answer lies in the Molecular structure of Ethanol, it actually has a % of Oxygen in it so there is less air required to properly ignite the fuel, which means more liquid or less miles per gallon. But back to the previous issue, if the engine where properly designed to operate on Ethanol you could still produce great fuel mileage and Horse power from a renewable fuel which brings us around to the food for fuel controversy. I don't know if you are one to believe in a lot of these conspiracy theories but it sure looked to me as if there was some sort of conspiracy to shoot the legs out from under the Ethanol industry with an onslaught of food for fuel misinformation dumped out there. Once again don't get me wrong, personally I don't think corn is the best crop to raise to produce Alcohol, Sugar Cane, Sugar Beats, Fader Beats or even Cat Tails would all produce more gallons per acre then Corn. With that being said, we still produce more Corn then we need(farmers are still being paid by the government to not raise corn to help keep the prices high), Ethanol is made from Feed Corn, not Sweet Corn and through the fermenting process only the Sugars and Starches are removed from the Corn leaving a very fine animal feed called Distillers Grains which is very high in Protein, making for less fat in the meat, which makes it healthier for us, so I understand. What about using more energy to produce Ethanol after plowing the field, fermenting, distillation etc, then is available at the pump? I say what about drilling for, pumping, transporting half way around the Globe in a Super Tanker and the huge amounts of energy needed to crack and/or refine Petrol? I am not sure this is true but I have heard this several times that the energy needed to refine the lower grades of Crude available today is more then the end product, but I won't be like the Oil Company's and spread false rumors. As far as distilling, at a alternative energy fair in Fort Collins, Colorado I met Justin Bruen of Heliotrack who was demonstrating a real cool Solar Distiller made from a old Satellite Dish and it was working slicker then snot, so there you go. Now my final words on this subject: Out of all the Energy possibility's Alcohol is the only one (except Bio-Diesel I suppose) that I, if I put forth enough effort, could produce myself. There is something about the self sufficiency of Alcohol that most appeals to me, I believe I read on Justin's site about the empowerment of the individual. So Piss on O.P.E.C., and on Big Oil and lets take care of ourselves. As of today (February of 2009) I see that Gas prices are slowly heading back up and I predict that in a year from now regular Dino Poop will be back up to $4.00 per gallon to stay and I will be helping Joe Public to convert his Gas Hog to run on Moonshine and helping Dave Blume and his cause to empower local fuel Coops to break ties with Big Oil. Time will tell! See Ya in the Hills! |
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| Update: As of March 09, It looks like big oil has taken advantage of the struggling Ethanol Businesses, or created an opportunity to purchase many of them. Big Oil now has the ability to control the price of E-85 so we can be assured Ethanol will never be of any competition to Dino Poop. May I quote the Talking Heads, "same as it ever was". |